Lloyds Banking Group plc (LON:LLOY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Lloyds Banking Group plc (LON:LLOY) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 107.78.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on LLOY shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 100 to GBX 120 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Shore Capital Group lowered Lloyds Banking Group to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from GBX 84 to GBX 91 in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup upped their target price on Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 98 to GBX 106 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a GBX 103 target price on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Lloyds Banking Group to GBX 125 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd.

Lloyds Banking Group Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Lloyds Banking Group stock opened at GBX 95.23 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 102.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 93.03. The company has a market cap of £56.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.80, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.93. Lloyds Banking Group has a 1 year low of GBX 60.78 and a 1 year high of GBX 114.60.

Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported GBX 7 EPS for the quarter. Lloyds Banking Group had a net margin of 24.49% and a return on equity of 9.93%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lloyds Banking Group will post 7.3199528 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.