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Average Price Target
Based on 10 Wall Street analysts offering 12 month price targets for Barclays in the last 3 months. The average price target is 256.22p with a high forecast of 321.00p and a low forecast of 210.00p. The average price target represents a 18.02% change from the last price of 217.10p.
Momentum investing revolves around the idea of following a stock's recent trend in either direction. In the 'long' context, investors will be essentially be "buying high, but hoping to sell even higher." With this methodology, taking advantage of trends in a stock's price is key; once a stock establishes a course, it is more than likely to continue moving that way. The goal is that once a stock heads down a fixed path, it will lead to timely and profitable trades.
While many investors like to look for momentum in stocks, this can be very tough to define. There is a lot of debate surrounding which metrics are the best to focus on and which are poor quality indicators of future performance. The Zacks Momentum Style Score, part of the Zacks Style Scores, helps address this issue for us.
Below, we take a look at Barclays (BCS), which currently has a Momentum Style Score of A. We also discuss some of the main drivers of the Momentum Style Score, like price change and earnings estimate revisions.
It's also important to note that Style Scores work as a complement to the Zacks Rank, our stock rating system that has an impressive track record of outperformance. Barclays currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Our research shows that stocks rated Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and #2 (Buy) and Style Scores of A or B outperform the market over the following one-month period.
You can see the current list of Zacks #1 Rank Stocks here >>>
Set to Beat the Market?
In order to see if BCS is a promising momentum pick, let's examine some Momentum Style elements to see if this financial holding company holds up.
Looking at a stock's short-term price activity is a great way to gauge if it has momentum, since this can reflect both the current interest in a stock and if buyers or sellers have the upper hand at the moment. It's also helpful to compare a security to its industry; this can show investors the best companies in a particular area.
For BCS, shares are up 2.15% over the past week while the Zacks Banks - Foreign industry is up 1.45% over the same time period. Shares are looking quite well from a longer time frame too, as the monthly price change of 6.54% compares favorably with the industry's 0.27% performance as well.
While any stock can see its price increase, it takes a real winner to consistently beat the market. That is why looking at longer term price metrics -- such as performance over the past three months or year -- can be useful as well. Shares of Barclays have increased 11.05% over the past quarter, and have gained 99.44% in the last year. In comparison, the S&P 500 has only moved 0.88% and 31.67%, respectively.
Investors should also pay attention to BCS's average 20-day trading volume. Volume is a useful item in many ways, and the 20-day average establishes a good price-to-volume baseline; a rising stock with above average volume is generally a bullish sign, whereas a declining stock on above average volume is typically bea
Since the commencement of the share buy-back programme announced on 2 August 2021, the Company has purchased 167,549,375 ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange in aggregate at a weighted average price of 182.8108p per ordinary share.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish telecom operator Telefonica has hired investment banks Barclays and LionTree to seek a partner to finance its fibre network in Britain, Spanish online newspaper El Confidencial reported on Thursday citing sources close to the transaction.
British cable and mobile provider Virgin Media O2, jointly owned by Telefonica and Liberty Global’s, is planning to upgrade it entire network to full fibre by 2028 and raise its number of subscribers to 21 million, El Confidencial said.
The operation would require between 4 billion euros and 5 billion euros, El Confidencial said.
A spokesperson for Telefonica declined to comment. A Barclays spokesperson was not immediately able to comment. LionTree did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Edmund Blair
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4450879-barclays-strong-buy-on-meaningful-share-buybacks
Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in two days. Typically, the ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date which is the date on which a company determines the shareholders eligible to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is of consequence because whenever a stock is bought or sold, the trade takes at least two business day to settle. Meaning, you will need to purchase Barclays' shares before the 12th of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 17th of September.
The company's upcoming dividend is UK£0.02 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of UK£0.04 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Barclays has a trailing yield of 2.2% on the current stock price of £1.8266. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Barclays's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
Check out our latest analysis for Barclays
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Barclays paid out just 11% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.
Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. It's encouraging to see Barclays has grown its earnings rapidly, up 32% a year for the past five years.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. It looks like the Barclays dividends are largely the same as they were 10 years ago.
The Bottom Line
Is Barclays worth buying for its dividend? Typically, companies that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings are keeping the profits for reinvestment in the business. This strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. Overall, Barclays looks like a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it would be worth investigating further.
With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. We've identified 2 warning signs with Barclays (at least 1 which is concerning), and understanding these should be part of your investment process
Barclays has increased the size of its banker bonus pool by more than a third to almost £1.1bn after a rebound in profits, amid an improving economic outlook as pandemic restrictions recede.
Setting out the details of the bonus pool in a half-year update to the London Stock Exchange, the bank said it had ringfenced the cash to compensate its star bankers next spring when payouts are usually made. It means Barclays employees have another six months to build up their final bonus pot for the year, which is likely to come in higher than the £1.6bn paid out for the whole of 2020 when the UK was gripped by the Covid pandemic.
For the first six months of 2021, the bank set aside almost £1.1bn for its bonus pool, up from £785m a year earlier. The final bonus pool will also cover payouts for executives, including the chief executive, Jes Staley, who was given a £843,000 bonus last year.
Staley said the bank was being “prudent” in the way it handled bonuses because it linked payouts to the bank’s profitability.
Referring to the performance of Barclays’ investment banking division where its income from fees surged 27% to £1.7bn in the first six months of the year, he said: “Our comp[ensation] to income ratio is one of the lowest in the industry, so we think we’re being prudent in how we are managing that variable compensation.”
The planned payouts follow a strong second quarter overall, with Barclays’ pre-tax profits rising to £2.6bn over the three months to the end of June, up from £359m a year earlier. It also beat consensus forecasts for £1.7bn in profits for the period.
The bank benefited from an improving economic outlook after the lifting of most UK Covid restrictions, which meant it was able to release £1bn in bad debt provisions that it had put aside to cover potential defaults related to the pandemic. Barclays, which was forced to put aside £1.6bn during the same period last year, had been expected by City analysts to release £55m.
Despite the improvement in the economy over recent months, the bank warned “the outlook remains uncertain and subject to change depending on the evolution and persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
However, the bank still announced plans to buy back up to £500m of shares from its investors, while also paying a half-year dividend of 2p a share. It means shareholders who were blocked from receiving payouts for most of 2020 because of Bank of England Covid restrictions are now in line for more than £800m. Threadneedle Street had ordered banks not to pay any cash bonuses to senior bankers and to suspend dividend payments last year due to the role banks play in supporting the British economy.
“Our profitability, strong capital position and balance sheet have enabled us to increase capital distributions to shareholders,” Staley said.
Barclays shares were up 3.7% at 175p in early morning trading.
The lender’s corporate and investment banking arm also contributed to rising profits performance, wi
Barclays first up among the banks
Barclays is first up on the list of FTSE 100 banks scheduled to report this week.
UBS is forecasting a second-quarter adjusted profit before tax for the bank of £1.8bn “in a result in which capital market revenues, loan loss overlay write-backs and restructuring charges will likely distort headline numbers”.
UBS is also predicting the CET1 ratio – a measure of balance sheet strength – will be 14.4%, including the exclusion of capitalised software intangibles.
LONDON (Reuters) -Businesswoman Amanda Staveley's appeal to overturn a court's verdict against her in her case against Barclays has been refused, a court filing seen by Reuters on Monday showed.
A London High Court judge in February found Barclays guilty of "serious deceit" over how the British bank negotiated a lifeline with Amanda Staveley during the 2008 financial crisis, but denied her damages and dismissed her claim.
Staveley said at the time she would take advice on appealing the verdict.
Lawyers representing Staveley did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, while Barclays declined to comment.
The failure of the Staveley appeal could potentially draw a line under legal action over Barclays' successful attempt to secure funding that helped the bank avoid a state bailout during the 2008 crisis.
During the acrimonious court battle, Staveley's PCP Capital Partners Group claimed as much as 836 million pounds ($1.18 billion) in compensation.
The PCP case revolved around how Barclays secured billions of pounds from Qatar and Abu Dhabi-backed investors 13 years ago, allowing it to secure its independence.
PCP, which led a 3.25 billion pound, Abu Dhabi-backed investment into the bank, alleged it was induced to fund Barclays on much worse terms than Qatar - despite assurances it would get the same deal.
While a High Court judge said Barclays had deceived Staveley, he ultimately ruled in February that PCP had not proven its case on causation and loss, meaning the overall case failed.
Barclays Faces Credit Trader Exodus Over Bonus Disappointment
(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc has been hit by a string of departures among senior credit traders in New York and London unhappy that their bonuses failed to reflect the pandemic profit surge.
The bank has offered promotions to some employees and given assurances over future pay in an attempt to address their concerns, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Departures from the credit desk include Ovie Faruq, director in U.S. high-yield cash and derivatives trading in New York, the people said. Bloomberg News has previously reported that Shrut Kalra, head of European investment grade trading, Taymour El Chammah, global head of macro credit trading, and John Cortese, co-head of U.S. credit trading, left last month. They all declined to comment.
Faruq, Kalra, Cortese and spokesperson at Barclays declined to comment, while El Chammah did not respond to requests for comment.
Bonuses in credit trading rose by as much as 20% over the past year, the people said. However, the increase did not keep pace with the improvement in some teams’ performances, according to the people.
Across the bank, Barclays granted annual bonuses worth 1.09 billion pounds ($1.54 billion), down 3% year-on-year following an overall 30% drop in pretax profits in the wake of the pandemic.
Money Maker
Credit traders buy and sell bonds and loans issued by corporations and also deal in derivatives linked to their financial health. They thrived as companies were slammed by the pandemic before central banks intervened, sending bonds on a rollercoaster. A record $39 billion of U.S. corporate debt was bought and sold on average every day last year, helping the biggest banks generate the most credit-trading revenue since 2013, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and Coalition Development Ltd.
The business is a key money maker for Barclays. Led by Adeel Khan, the unit’s best performers included traders in so-called flow credit and U.S. high-yield bonds, the people said. Khan has recently made several promotions within the team. Last month, London-based Finbar Cooke and Michael Khouri were made co-heads of credit trading for Europe, while Hong Kong-based James Roberts took on the role for Asia.
While the bank stopped disclosing results for the unit several years ago, the credit business generated about 38% of the wider fixed-income division’s revenue for 2016 and 2017 combined, filings show. The division, which also houses teams dealing in government bonds and currencies, reported revenue of 5.1 billion pounds ($7.2 billion) last year, the most in almost a decade.
On an earnings call last month, Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said the bank has the ability to cut bonuses to address investor concerns about its growing costs. “It’s a very controllable number so if our performance weakens w
Investors might want to bet on Barclays (BCS), as it has been recently upgraded to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). An upward trend in earnings estimates -- one of the most powerful forces impacting stock prices -- has triggered this rating change.
The sole determinant of the Zacks rating is a company's changing earnings picture. The Zacks Consensus Estimate -- the consensus of EPS estimates from the sell-side analysts covering the stock -- for the current and following years is tracked by the system.
The power of a changing earnings picture in determining near-term stock price movements makes the Zacks rating system highly useful for individual investors, since it can be difficult to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts. These are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time.
As such, the Zacks rating upgrade for Barclays is essentially a positive comment on its earnings outlook that could have a favorable impact on its stock price.
Most Powerful Force Impacting Stock Prices
The change in a company's future earnings potential, as reflected in earnings estimate revisions, has proven to be strongly correlated with the near-term price movement of its stock. That's partly because of the influence of institutional investors that use earnings and earnings estimates for calculating the fair value of a company's shares. An increase or decrease in earnings estimates in their valuation models simply results in higher or lower fair value for a stock, and institutional investors typically buy or sell it. Their transaction of large amounts of shares then leads to price movement for the stock.
Fundamentally speaking, rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade for Barclays imply an improvement in the company's underlying business. Investors should show their appreciation for this improving business trend by pushing the stock higher.
Harnessing the Power of Earnings Estimate Revisions
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock movements, so it could be truly rewarding if such revisions are tracked for making an investment decision. Here is where the tried-and-tested Zacks Rank stock-rating system plays an important role, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions.
The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>.
Earnings Estimate Revisions for Barclays
This financial holding company is expected to earn $1.27 per share for the fiscal year ending December 2021, which represents a year-over-year change of 1
Barclays gets Zacks 2upgrade
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/barclays-bcs-moves-buy-rationale-213709054.html