Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

The recent weakness in Lloyds' shares has prompted Numis Securities to upgrade its rating on the stock to 'buy'.As of Monday's closing price, the stock had fallen 12.5% since hitting a 52-week closing high in mid-January. It has now dropped 5.6% over the past five days alone since the government sold a 7.78% stake in the lender.Numis pointed out that the bank's share price performance has been particularly weak since the government's share sale on March 26th and the stock now provides 30% upside to its 97p target price."We upgrade to buy' (from 'add') and highlight Lloyds Banking Group in our UK monthly 'top-picks' published today," said Analyst Mike Trippitt.He said that the bank has "powerful equity cash flow", helped by a recovery in attributable profit and low risk weighted asset growth. "We forecast equity cash-flow of 6.4p per share and a 2.0p dividend for 2014 (47% pay-out) increasing to 2.5p and 3.1p in 2015 and 2016."The broker estimates that Lloyds' fully loaded core tier-1 capital ratio will rise from 10% at the end of 2013 to 11.2% in 2014 and 11.7% in 2015.The stock was 1.1% higher at 75.49p by 09:21.BC