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Lloyds results preview
Lloyds is scheduled to update investors on its half-year performance tomorrow and IG reports that the lender is expected to report pre-tax profit of £4.3 billion, up from £3.1 billion a year earlier, while revenue is expected to have climbed to £9.4 billion.
?Britain's biggest mortgage lender has seen off competition from some of its biggest high street rivals to snap up a £3.7bn book of home loans from Tesco Bank.
Sky News has learnt that Lloyds Banking Group has entered exclusive talks to buy the ?prime mortgages, which will strengthen its position in the market.
City sources said that if completed, Lloyds would pay tens of millions of pounds to Tesco to seal the supermarket giant's exit from the UK mortgage market.
Analyst ratings update
Morgan Stanley reaffirmed its ‘overweight’ stance on the bailed-out lender, without specifying a target on the Lloyds share price, while earlier this week, Deutsche Bank reiterated its ‘buy’ rating on the company. According to MarketBeat, the London-listed group currently has a consensus ‘buy’ rating and an average valuation 70.06p.
Bargain buy
Today, you can buy it at a forward valuation of just 7.5 times earnings, which puts it deep into bargain territory. A price-to-book value of 0.8 only adds to what looks like an incredibly strong buy case for the £40bn FTSE 100-listed high street banking fixture.
Why are buybacks favored over dividends? If the economy slows or falls into recession, the bank might be forced to cut its dividend to preserve cash. The result would undoubtedly lead to a sell-off in the stock. However, if the bank decided to buy back fewer shares, achieving the same preservation of capital as a dividend cut, the stock price would likely take less of a hit. Committing to dividend payouts with steady increases will certainly drive a company's stock higher, but the dividend strategy can be a double-edged sword for a company. In the event of a recession, share buybacks can be decreased more easily than dividends, with a far less negative impact on the stock price.
With Lloyds recently announcing they plan to start paying a Quarterly Dividends starting next year
and buying millions of their own shares
both ideas to boost investors confidence in buying into Lloyds and make it more worthwhile
why on earth would they wan't to upset the apple cart and cut the dividend
However, the danger of Mr Corbyn being allowed in through the back door because of the Brexit Party splitting the vote was highlighted in new calculations on the cost of his plans to renationalise the energy market and national grid.
According to research, the proposal which has only happened in bankrupt Venezuela, would cost £45 billion, adding £2,500 in debt for every household in Britain.
However, the danger of Mr Corbyn being allowed in through the back door because of the Brexit Party splitting the vote was highlighted in new calculations on the cost of his plans to renationalise the energy market and national grid.
According to research, the proposal which has only happened in bankrupt Venezuela, would cost £45 billion, adding £2,500 in debt for every household in Britain.
In 2015, Lloyds returned £2bn to shareholders through dividend payments. By 2018, this figure had doubled to about £4bn, made up of £2.3bn in dividends and £1.75bn of share buybacks.
What does this mean for shareholders? For the second year running, chief executive António Horta-Osório has opted to use some of the group’s surplus cash to reduce its share count.
For shareholders, the benefit should be that earnings per share rise more quickly, because profits are split among fewer shares. Last year’s £1bn buyback repurchased 1.6bn shares. I estimate that this year’s £1.75bn buyback could involve about 2.65bn shares.
Given that the bank has about 71.2bn shares at the time of writing, this year’s buyback alone should reduce the total share count by about 3.7%. However, I think the real reduction will probably be a little lower than this.
BREXIT BOMBSHELL: UK could leave EU in WEEKS - Vote next week could FINALLY secure exit
BRITAIN could leave the European Union this summer if MPs pass a planned indicative vote next week - a leak from Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn's talks have revealed.
By ROB VIRTUE
PUBLISHED: 10:26, Fri, May 17, 2019 | UPDATED: 21:21, Fri, May 17, 2019
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1128415/Brexit-news-theresa-may-jeremy-corbyn
National Grid
Here with you. Here for you. At National Grid we are committed to delivering safe and reliable energy to the customers and communities we serve.
We are one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world - covering Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and the UK.
USA NGG
Shares in issue 76,304.000
https://investors.nationalgrid.com/share-price/share-price-chart/new-york-stock-exchange
Why invest in National Grid
We aim to be a low-risk business that generates shareholder value through dividends and asset/equity growth. To find out how we do this, visit our investor website and review our annual report.
https://investors.nationalgrid.com/
£4.5bn of capital invested delivering strong organic asset growth of 7.2% • Sale of Cadent to complete with £2bn in proceeds expected in June • Good US regulatory progress, with all operating companies under refreshed rates • Launched new cost efficiency programmes in both UK and US • Significant progress on interconnector portfolio • Major milestone achieved for Property business with transfer of Fulham site to St William Strong and efficient balance sheet • Appropriate level of debt funding for strong credit ratings, with gearing around 65% • Target retained cash flow (RCF) to net debt above 9% • Strong single A credit rating for UK operating companies and majority of US operating companies; NG plc rated BBB+ • Scrip dividend option provides flexibility for growth Strong strategic progress in 2018/19
At the end of the day, if it came to it, I think it would be politically unrealistic for a Labour government not to pay UK shareholders the same price for their shares as they were paying overseas investors. This is why I’d still be happy to buy National Grid shares today.
A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NG shares. Societe Generale set a GBX 930 price objective on shares of National Grid and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 17th. Credit Suisse Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a GBX 850 ($11.11) price objective on shares of National Grid in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of National Grid from GBX 875 ($11.43) to GBX 899 ($11.75) and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a GBX 1,000 ($13.07) target price on shares of National Grid and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a GBX 950 target price on shares of National Grid in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of GBX 907.67