StockMarketWire.com
Investec has downgraded its recommendation on Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) to "sell" from "hold" ahead of the banks third quarter interim management statement due to be released on 1 November. The City broker has left its share price target unchanged at 36 pence. Analyst Ian Gordon commented: 'Lloyds is due to release its third quarter interim management statement on 1 November 2012. We are anticipating an underlying profit before tax of £0.6bn, with Net Interest Income £2.6bn, Other Income £2.0bn, costs £2.4bn and impairments £1.6bn. This equates to a Management profit before tax of £0.7bn, subject to quarterly fluctuations in a number of volatile items. After a net £0.6bn charge for exceptional items we expect a reported profit before tax of around £0.1bn, and an earnings per share close to zero our estimate is 0.04p per share. Our 36 pence target price remains unchanged, though with 16% absolute downside [to the current share price] we downgrade our recommendation to sell.'

Merrill Lynch is right, ignore Invested.

Is it not amazing how two respected brokers have such differring forecasts one or the other is going to end up with a omelette facial!

guess we know Investec and their clients are short LLOY.

Credit Suisse has maintained its 'neutral' rating and 31p target price for UK banking group Lloyds ahead of its third-quarter results on November 1st.

With the stock trading at 0.6 times 2013 estimated tangible net asset value (tNAV) for a 5-7% return on tangible equity (RoTE), the broker reiterates its 'neutral' rating "but believes that given recent strength the stock should give back some of the gains".

"There is a still a long way to go, although the group has made good progress in restructuring and improving its funding profile."

Are HMG lending out our shares?

On Thursday Lloyds Banking Group is expected to announce a pre-tax loss of about £700m amid expectations the lender will be forced to take a further provision against PPI on top of the more than £4bn it has already set aside to pay claims

3rd Quarter Results

Improved underlying Group performance in a challenging environment

· Underlying profit increased by 148 per cent to £1,904 million
· Net interest margin in line with plan at 1.93 per cent (first nine months of 2011: 2.10 per cent)
· Further reductions in costs (down 5 per cent) and impairment (down 40 per cent)
· Statutory loss before tax of £583 million, including a further PPI provision of £1 billion in the third quarter

Core business continuing to deliver returns above the cost of equity

· Return on risk-weighted assets of 2.61 per cent (first nine months of 2011: 2.48 per cent)
· Loans and advances to customers marginally down in third quarter at £426.0 billion (30 June 2012: £428.5 billion)
· Net interest margin of 2.32 per cent; stable in third quarter
· Credit quality remains strong: impairment reduced 40 per cent to £1,351 million; impairment charge as a percentage of average advances improved to 0.41 per cent (first nine months of 2011: 0.66 per cent)

Investing in our core business to improve service, and support our customers and the UK economy

· Lowest FSA reportable banking complaints (excl. PPI) of major UK banks at 1.4 per 1,000 accounts
· Net Promoter Scores up in all the three main retail brands
· SME net lending growth of 4 per cent in the last 12 months against market down 4 per cent
· UK's largest lender to first-time buyers, helping around 40,000 customers buy their first home so far in 2012
· First bank to access Funding for Lending scheme: £1 billion drawn in September; lending commitments to SMEs increased by £1 billion to £13 billion; £500 million commitment made to first-time buyer market

Further good progress on initiatives to simplify and reshape the business

· Simplification run-rate cost savings increased by £418 million in the nine months to end September to £660 million
· Non-core assets reduced by £31 billion to £110 billion, ahead of 2012 full year guidance
· 12 countries or overseas branches now exited, or exit announced, out of target of 15 by the end of 2014

Strong balance sheet: improved capital ratios, continued above-market deposit growth and strong liquidity

· Strong capital position: core tier 1 ratio continues to improve and is now 11.5 per cent; total capital ratio increased to 16.6 per cent, confident we will meet future regulatory capital requirements
· Continued above-market deposit growth of 6 per cent year-on-year
· Group loan to deposit ratio further improved to 124 per cent (core: 102 per cent)
· Greater balance sheet flexibility, with surplus liquidity deployed in repurchase of over £10 billion of term funding in Q3

Guidance reaffirmed or improved
· Full year 2012 Group net interest margin expected to be around 1.93 per cent, in line with previous guidance
· Cost base of close to £10 billion in full year 2012, two years ahead of original plan; reduction of around £1 billion since 2010
· 2012 impairment charge guidance further lowered to approximately £6 billion
· Full year 2012 non-core asset reduction target further increased to around £38 billion, £13 billion more than original target; continue to expect non-core asset reduction to be capital generative
· Expect to reach our long-term loan to deposit ratio target of 100 per cent for the core business in the first quarter of 2013, at the same time as reaching a 120 per cent loan to deposit ratio for

Well, for all the negative posts from various people a while ago:
EXAMPLE : TANKER - 28 Feb 2012 10:09 - 4039 of 4200

what is or has this useless CEO done since he arrived at the bank
answer take is pay the man is a totaly useless 13 months and all he as done is drive down the SP and the bank

, it looks like A H-O is keeping his head below the parapet but doing a pretty efficient job. Lets hope his health doesn't let him down again.

It looks like it spiked to 44p earlier - I may have been tempted to sell some at that price!

Nomura has maintained its 'reduce' rating and 35p target price for Lloyds, saying that while the bank's third-quarter figures were in line with estimates, they are not going to drive upgrades for the core.

Nomura reckons that these results are likely to reassure investors that management plans are on track. "However, with the stock already rallying significantly over the year and no material upgrade to core earnings, we would not expect sustained strength on the back of these number and see the +7% opening print this morning as an overreaction on short covering," the broker said.

Nomura must be very short!

sp going like a train.

Hmmmm.......but a bit too much like a City Hopper rather than a TGV.

Hargreaves Lansdowne say 12 brokers buy 8 neutral and 7 sell, you pays your money and........

Lovely chart. Almost back to breakeven for me!

Looks like LLOY has a cunning plan to recoup losses on PPI mis-selling just received household insurance policy renewal notice, premium up almost 20% needless to say policy cancelled, do they think their customers are morons? Or are their managers morons?

12 month high this morning @45.6p

I knew I should have bought at 22p!

Looking to make new highs sometime soon.