Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) Cut to “Equal Weight” at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on LYG. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Friday, October 4th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Kepler Capital Markets initiated coverage on Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut Lloyds Banking Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Citigroup cut Lloyds Banking Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lloyds Banking Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $2.75.

Lloyds Banking Group Stock Up 1.5 %

LYG opened at $2.79 on Wednesday. Lloyds Banking Group has a 1-year low of $1.98 and a 1-year high of $3.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The stock has a market cap of $42.88 billion, a PE ratio of 7.15 and a beta of 1.35.

Institutional Trading of Lloyds Banking Group

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LYG. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD boosted its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 39.2% in the first quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 89,948,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $232,967,000 after buying an additional 25,351,270 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Lloyds Banking Group in the second quarter valued at about $36,252,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 49.6% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,577,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $23,415,000 after buying an additional 2,841,956 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 195.8% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 2,833,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,339,000 after buying an additional 1,875,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 114.5% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 2,487,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,790,000 after buying an additional 1,327,589 shares in the last quarter. 2.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.