The Phoenix Group share price recoils as growth concerns linger

The Phoenix Group (LON: PHNX) share price continued its freefall on Thursday as concern about the company’s growth continued. The shares slipped to a low of 474.40p, the lowest level since October last year. It has plunged by 20% from the highest point this year, meaning it has moved into a bear market.

Growth concerns remain

The Phoenix Group is a leading company that provides services in pensions, savings, and life insurance. While its name is not widely known, its brands like Standard Life, SunLife, ReAssure, Phoenix Life, Phoenix Wealth, and Corporate Investment Services are known well in the UK. It has over £269 billion in assets under administration.

The PHNX share price continued its sell-off after the company published mixed financial results last week. The results showed that the company’s operating profit before tax jumped from £254 million in the first half of 2022 to £266 million. This growth happened as Heritage profit rose to £117 million and Open to £182 million. Most importantly, it attributed this performance to CMS release

The Phoenix Group also narrowed its loss during the period. Total loss attributable to shareholders narrowed from over £1.2 billion in 2022 to just £245 million  The stock also retreated after the company reduced its shareholder equity by £0.4 billion. In a statement, the CEO said:

“By leveraging our three unique competitive advantages of capital efficiency, customer access, and cost efficiency, we are delivering strong organic growth. We more than doubled our incremental new business long-term cash generation in the first half and are on track to deliver our target of £1.5 billion per annum by 2025.”

The stock has dropped because of the company’s relatively slow growth and the rising fears about the stagnating or even decelerating UK economy. Economists believe that the economy will remain under pressure as inflation remains stubbornly high.

The Phoenix Group share price analysis

PHNX chart by TradingView

The daily chart shows that the PHNX stock price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few weeks. It is now sitting at the key support at 473.7p, the lowest swing on March 28th this year. The shares have formed a descending channel shown in black and moved below the 25-day and 50-day moving averages.

The Phoenix Group stock’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has dropped below the neutral point of 50. Therefore, the shares will likely continue falling as sellers target the key support at 460p. The alternative situation is where the stock rebounds and retests the upper side of the channel at 500p.

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