Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE:LYG) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE:LYG) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on LYG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Lloyds Banking Group from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Lloyds Banking Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded Lloyds Banking Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Lloyds Banking Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. L1 Capital Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $548,574,000. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD bought a new stake in Lloyds Banking Group in the third quarter valued at about $285,004,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 12.6% during the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 148,828,623 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $632,522,000 after buying an additional 16,705,846 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in Lloyds Banking Group by 178.3% during the 2nd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 2,261,115 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,610,000 after buying an additional 1,448,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Lloyds Banking Group by 6.1% in the 1st 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. 2.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lloyds Banking Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:LYG opened at $4.85 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.31. The company has a market cap of $71.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.84, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.55. Lloyds Banking Group has a one year low of $2.56 and a one year high of $4.86.

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $6.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.02 billion. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 18.04%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Lloyds Banking Group will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lloyds Banking Group Company Profile

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.