Lloyds Banking Group plc (LON:LLOY) Insider Sells £7,936.60 in Stock

Lloyds Banking Group plc (LON:LLOY) insider William Chalmers sold 11,338 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 70 ($0.90), for a total value of £7,936.60 ($10,248.71).

Lloyds Banking Group Price Performance

LLOY stock traded up GBX 1.78 ($0.02) during midday trading on Monday, hitting GBX 72.36 ($0.93). 100,420,836 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 174,597,375. Lloyds Banking Group plc has a 1-year low of GBX 49.42 ($0.64) and a 1-year high of GBX 74.46 ($0.96). The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 65.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 59.38. The firm has a market cap of £43.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.15, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.23.

Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The financial services provider reported GBX 6.30 ($0.08) EPS for the quarter. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 11.22% and a net margin of 16.66%. On average, research analysts predict that Lloyds Banking Group plc will post 7.3199528 earnings per share for the current year.

Lloyds Banking Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a GBX 2.11 ($0.03) dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This is a boost from Lloyds Banking Group’s previous dividend of $1.06. This represents a dividend yield of 3.01%. Lloyds Banking Group’s payout ratio is 37.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 61 ($0.79) to GBX 71 ($0.92) and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Shore Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 55 ($0.71) to GBX 62 ($0.80) and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lloyds Banking Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of GBX 60.60 ($0.78).

About Lloyds Banking Group

We are the largest UK retail and commercial financial services provider with over 25 million customers and a presence in nearly every community.

The Group’s main business activities are retail and commercial banking, general insurance and long-term savings, provided through the largest branch network and digital bank in the UK, with well recognised brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.

Our shares are quoted on the London and New York stock exchanges and we are one of the largest companies in the FTSE 100 index.