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Hi Longtime! I agree. Thanks!
The point I was trying to make was that they have previously (pre-covid) signalled they would move from a twice a year dividend policy towards a quarterly or even more frequent strategy. This is interesting to me as it could change the nature of the stock and the type of investors that would buy it. Does anybody have any thoughts on this point??
Cheeeers

I agree Cornsland (as I have written several times here). At the moment the future dividend strategy is uncertain so when and if we get a better picture that would be helpful. Also, are we even sure they will be implementing the "quarterly" dividends??
DividendMax seems to think there will be 4 dividends next year...

I am very critical of this share as I used to work there in a reasonably senior position and knows the company well. I am still sceptical about the strategy and if even if the strategy was a good one ( which it is not) I doubt they can implement as for 5-7 years they spend so much time on wokeness rather than competency. BUT this week something is happening with the share. So many banks had a rebound after this week's Chinese scare big volume and positive price action perhaps indicates that the share can come alive again. It's worth more that 45P that's for sure especially due to the massive cash generating capability of the balance sheet.

I am a relative new investor in BGLF. Does anyone care to spread some light on the rationale behind the company's purchases of its own shares this month (albeit small)?Thanks!

It's a horrible company which is reflected in the share price... The strategy, the culture, the product range just got worse and worse under the invisible and tyrannical AHO...

Lloyds is being impacted "by proxy" from the China real estate situation. In my view the Lloyds share, despite a new CEO, is continuing its travels below any European or Global Bank index for the following reasons :
1. Lloyds historically is a "dividend stock". Last year the regulators killed the slow build-up that AHO started. No good news this year has depressed the stock.
2. The only new news we have during the new CEO's transition into the new job is that Lloyds would be competing in the actual property rental business. It's, in my view as a ex employee, a typical result of the round the table "brain-storm" session asking " how can we make more money". It's an imbecile idea that further plunges the stock into UK real estate market risk concentration. UK investors are likely to already have this exposure and foreign investors who knows how they will react? so far, not well...
3. The company is without direction and the culture is terrible. Obsessed with the AHO legacy obsession with the UK (which may have been logical in his first 5-7 years) the company has hired domestically focused staff with a massive focus on "diversity by numbers". For this stock to "outperform US, or even European" bank indexes a new exciting growth strategy needs to be developed and the culture totally changed performed from "political" to competence and performance based.
Just saying....

Bank Vontobel here in Zurich also has a buy rating. Price target 62.

I took delivery of some physical share certificates a few years ago and those dividends to straight into my Lloyds Bank account on the day of the distribution FYI...

As a previous employee with deferred compensation shares I get the dividend via LBG's shareplansportal.
They credit the dividend to that account on the right date but the automatic transfer to my Lloyds Private Bank account takes two-three days... I would not be surprised if it the same of you deal with Lloyds or Halifax share services.
When I was an employee I had to deal with Halifax and it is possibly the worst share dealing platform I've dealt with in the three countries I have or have had investment accounts. They still take the "float" to make some extra cash management income...

It seems to me it has this pattern very often. Frisky start and the a slow decline for the rest of the day... Kind of a bearish behaviour unfortunately. Hopefully proper dividends will be restored before to long.

I just read this article in the FT. Amazing. How many more schemes did LBG come up with to trick clients just to make money?
In my 6 years there (commercial Bank) I was astounded about how the culture was so focused on coming up with quick schemes to boost revenue rather than building great client services and products. I spent more than a decade on Wall Street and even there clients mattered more than at LBG... Now they are getting into real estate investment and rental business... What could go wrong?

Hilarious!

Pointless appointment. The Markets business at LBG has been cut to the bare and probably rightly so as they only have UK centric clients in the commercial bank. Lloyds is about lending lending lending, not fee business.

I am also an optimist by nature but unless there is a massive up on the dividend in combination with a new growth strategy I continue to see the stock underperform the industry. I think an increase in the dividend is likely but a new growth strategy is highly unlikely as it will require a move away from the UK centric strategy. Cost cutting and increased dividend is the game.
My main problem with LBG is their "government style" culture (i.e. not focusing on results) and their obsession with woke metrics. The new CEO's video is telling. It's helpful to know that he can oil a bicycle chain but it's not really helpful in his job. It may even be an obstacle.

EarlHaig, I worked at Lloyds 2012-2018 in a top 1pct position. Top management gets well very paid but not the rest so from that perspective you are right. Nobody can predict what will happen so the question is really if Lloyds can outperform European/Global Bank indexes. In my view not a chance. Market share in retail deposits and mortgages is maxed out. Now they are getting into real estate investment and rental business. Too much risk concentration. Credit cards is soon maxed out. Low quality insurance and asset management. The Private Bank has been on stilts for 2 decades (nice guys but no products). AHO killed the Commercial bank which are way behind RBS, Barclays and HSBC in terms of market share in mid market and SME business. There is no Global Corporate business that can grow given the geographic limitation in their strategy. And in terms if financial institutions yes they make some money but it is correspondence banking which cannot really be grown. Finally, the culture is awful. It's like working for the Government with massive meetings full with people with accountability. Even if they had a new exciting growth strategy (it had to be international!) their ability to execute is very limited. Besides the last 5-6 years they have been more interested in fulfilling "diversity quotas" than promoting competent people who can deliver. The only thing that could safe the stock, in my view, is to restore a massive dividend. The balance sheet is impressive and can generate a huge return as they cut costs. Cheeers

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/sell-dog-funds-run-lloyds-101914014.html?.tsrc=applewf

In my view a very unimaginative move by Lloyds which perhaps indicates they are going to stick with the 95% UK exposure.
They are "doubling down" on UK real estate. The risk of holding the stock has just gone up with questionable future returns.

In the meantime, under AHO, they did NOTHING with their underinvested private bank and they cleaned out and dumbed down the commercial bank (in which they have limited market share in SME and Mid Market). They are out of asset management, a limited insurance business and while they have built market share in Credit Cards the picture is not the leading UK Bank.

One has to wait for the new CEO's strategy statement whenever that is going to come but this investment relies on belief in the UK as an economy and belief that they can resume an attractive dividend. I worked there for six years. It's like working in Government....

Both of you many thanks! It is my intention to buy and hold as part of a portfolio of high yielders in credit. Price action of yesterday really makes your comments come alive . I will try to follow a systematic strategy by buying small amounts regularly until I have reached my (unscientific) allocation. Thanks again. Best regards!

I am now in for modest amount. Will build from here. Many thanks!

Thanks for this! Well, to clarify, my intention is to build a position for the long term. I tried orders for 5K and 10K shares at "reasonable" limits (in the middle of the big spread) but got nothing done. I wonder if the liquidity improves when the US comes in.... I will report back later in the week. Thanks again.