Blimey!.....70p....at last!

Macquarie today reaffirms its neutral investment rating on Lloyds Banking Group PLC ORD (LON:LLOY) and raised its price target to 67p (from 65p).

Berenberg Sell 68.35 55.00 55.00 Reiterates

I'm hearing Woodford likes Lloyds and is buying in .

From where?

On interactive investor .

Woodford is not the only star fund manager to speak highly of Lloyds in recent weeks. Old Mutual Global Investors head of UK equities and chief executive Richard Buxton is bullish on banks, saying that they have taken their medicine and emerged from the credit crisis as good, cheap businesses.
“Lloyds is my favourite UK bank, on our calculations soon it will be paying a 6p dividend on a stock worth 64p. That is a 10% yield. That is unsustainable so you will get a re-rating of the share price,” he said. “Lloyds offers income and growth.”
Buxton considers Barclays to be undervalued, and says that HSBC is trading at fair value but is well positioned to benefit from rising US interest rates because of its global business model.

Why Neil Woodford just bought Lloyds Bank shares

Government is expected to complete its sale of shares in Lloyds this week.

Deutsche Bank today:
"We upgrade Lloyds from Hold to Buy driven by 4 areas:
1) following 4 quarters of successive reductions, NII is now growing;
2) though below the line charges are not over (we forecast another £1bn of PPI + £1bn for other redress) the worst should be past and we expect statutory earnings to trend to u/l by 2019,
3) Dividends: the strong 1Q17 CET1 of 14.3% and maintained guidance of 13% req means that Lloyds should be in a position to pay 4.65p dividends in 2017e, rising to 5.9p in 2019e, or consider buybacks.
4) Valuation: Lloyds is trading at a 1.26x TNAV for 6-7% yield and 12.3% RoTE vs. Europe at 1.13x TNAV, 10% RoTE and 5-6% div yield. We think the stock too cheap, TP 79p. BUY"

Reuters reports that the sale of the Government's remaining stake in Lloyds will be announced tomorrow.

According to BBC news this evening, HMG sold it's remaining shares today, so onwards & upwards......hopefully!

Though, according to Reuters:
"Britain is set to sell its remaining stake in Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) on Wednesday, making the lender the first to re-emerge from British state ownership in a symbolic step for the country's recovering banking sector.

The sale will draw a line under one of the largest bailouts from the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. This involved Lloyds, Britain's biggest retail lender, being rescued after an ill-fated government-brokered takeover of rival HBOS.

The takeover of HBOS in 2008 caused Lloyds to suffer more than 25 billion pounds in losses and the bank's subsequent rescue cost the British government more than 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) and left it with a 43 percent state shareholding.

This holding has gradually been sold back into the market over and now represents less than 1 percent of Lloyds shares. About half of the 137 billion pounds of direct cash injected into Britain's five bailed-out banks has so far been recovered.

Britain will make at least a 500 million pound profit from its bailout of Lloyds, the bank's chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said last week."

Also Reuters - Lloyds new era begins as government sells off final shares

Britain has sold its last remaining stake in Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), making the lender the first to re-emerge from British state ownership in a symbolic step for the country's recovering banking sector.

The sale draws a line under one of the largest bailouts from the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. This involved Lloyds, Britain's biggest retail lender, being rescued after an ill-fated government-brokered takeover of rival HBOS.

more.....

António Horta Osório interview on Bloomberg shortly.

11 month high @71.37p

Nice to see the sp increase, it should continue to do so in the coming years as PPI drops off and interest rates slowly rise. I hold LLOY for the divi which should also increase over time.

I agree with that.....barring any nasty surprises within the banking industry. I see the US are trying to push for less regulation within their banking industry......amazing how short some memories can be!

A link to the earlier interview :- Lloyds CEO Says Still 'Much More to Do' at Lender

slightly late in the day, but have sold HFD from my sipp and put most of that money into topping up LLOY