Is SLA share price rise justified?

Observations from Procensus

Standard Life Aberdeen has seen its share price sky rocket this year, even as negative headlines around the business continue to highlight risks to earnings.

According to a recent poll by Procensus, an opinion-sharing platform for institutional shareholders, SLA was second after Hargreaves Lansdown in a list of stocks which respondents deemed to have the most negative prospects over the coming months. As a result, the SLA stock has fallen three places in its PRO-EU-FIN index over the last three months to sit in 46th place out of 50. In this index, the company ranks worst on growth prospects and competitive advantages/franchise strength, while it only scores above the lowest quintile on one indicator - corporate governance. SLA AGM sees 42...