ShareCast News


Broker snap: UBS upgrades Lloyds to buy

Wed, 9th Jan 2013 11:45


Analysts at UBS believe that Lloyds is set to deliver rising margins, falling costs and falling provisions, over the next few years, which should provide a very strong upswing to profitability and EPS momentum.

Arguing in favour of the above, they think that the future regulatory agenda will be less aggressive than what we have experienced over the last 18 months, the bank has the simplest investment strategy and its balance sheet contraction is set to reverse.

Regarding that last point, UBS highlights how - unlike RBS and Barclays, which have been lending strongly into the UK mortgage market while contracting balance sheets in other areas - Lloyds has been shrinking both its non-core assets in 2012 and its core lending into the UK mortgage market as well. That will provide an additional catalyst specific to Lloyds.

For all of the above reasons they have decided to raise their price target on the company's shares to 60p, from 50p before, based upon a sustainable return on equity (RoE) of 13% generated by Lloyds' core business.

They also upgrade their recommendation on the company's shares to buy, from neutral.

AB





Back to ShareCast News


Sign up for Live Prices


Datafeed and UK data supplied by NETbuilder and Interactive Data. While London South East do their best to maintain the high quality of the information displayed on this site,
we cannot be held responsible for any loss due to incorrect information found here. All information is provided free of charge, 'as-is', and you use it at your own risk!
The contents of all 'Chat' messages should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Limited, or its affiliates.
London South East does not authorise or approve this content, and reserves the right to remove items at its discretion.