RE: Divi's n Buybacks5 Aug 2023 14:31
However, there’s a warning sign with Lloyds that might have flown under the radar for many. And it relates to its fat dividend that’s often one of the big justifiers for taking a position in the shares.
The backstory is that the UK’s biggest banks such as Barclays, NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds, Santander and Standard Chartered all suspended dividend payments and share buybacks in 2019 and through 2020. That was because of the pandemic. But the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) had been pressurising them to do that.
However, it’s what has happened since that I see as a warning sign for long-term investors tempted to hold the Lloyds stock.
The warning is that the company still hasn’t restored its dividend to pre-pandemic levels. And even after City analysts’ forecasts of double-digit percentage rises for 2023 and 2024, it will only be around 3.13p per share in 2024. However, in 2019, it was 3.26p.
https://www.fool.co.uk/2023/08/03/who-spotted-this-lloyds-banking-shares-warning-sign/