Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company.

LYG has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised Lloyds Banking Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Lloyds Banking Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. HSBC upgraded Lloyds Banking Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Lloyds Banking Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Lloyds Banking Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 26,669,053 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,540,000 after acquiring an additional 2,713,559 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 6.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 24,154,117 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,269,000 after acquiring an additional 1,397,163 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,404,259 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,620,000 after acquiring an additional 453,326 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 34.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,604,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,444,000 after acquiring an additional 4,021,039 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 9.0% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,492,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,083,000 after acquiring an additional 863,347 shares in the last quarter. 2.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lloyds Banking Group Trading Up 0.4%

LYG opened at $4.21 on Thursday. Lloyds Banking Group has a 1-year low of $2.56 and a 1-year high of $4.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.74 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day moving average of $3.98 and a 200-day moving average of $3.45.

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.03. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 8.46% and a net margin of 11.45%. The company had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.78 billion. Equities analysts predict that Lloyds Banking Group will post 0.27 EPS for the current year.

About Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers.