Swines!

Morgan Stanley Equal weight 68.74 80.00 75.00 Downgrades

Cheeky tw@ts

Convincing test of 69p.

Presumably the skilled analysts at MS want the price down so they can load up.

Looking rather good as it RBS. BARC getting hammered today on a good day for the banks

Go LLOY go LLOY .... £1 by Easter

Six month high !

Oh my giddy aunt , now making a charge at the one year high.

At long last it looks like the HFT'rs have given the old girl some reign.

This is going rather nicely.

Deutsche Bank today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Lloyds Banking Group PLC ORD (LON:LLOY) and raised its price target to 83p (from 77p).

It is following a similar pattern to last year. Drop then a run up to results, then drop and run up to div etc. Any guesses when this will bottom out this time?

Maybe a good time to start rotating back into Lloy. May go a little lower over the next few days. All sorts of excuses being dragged up for the fall in the Dow, but it may be nothing more than hair trigger automatic trading.

Brokers

Goldman has had the same pessimistic view for a long time now. Morgan Stanley has just come out with 75p. They can't both be right. Looking at the consensual views, GS is the outlier. Doesn't mean it is wrong in the long run but the dividend yield is still attractive.

Year end results due today, along with news of a share buy back scheme.

Good results. Maintains the dividend plus a billion £ buy back. Something for everyone.

StockMarketWire.com
Lloyds reported statutory profits before tax of £5.3bn in 2017, up 24% on £4.2bn the year before and revealed a £1bn share buyback.

The rise in profit offset the increased provision to PPI to £1,650m in 2017, of which £600 million was paid in the fourth quarter.

The lender said its common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio - a key measure of financial strength - stood at 15.5% excluding dividends at the end of 2017, compared with 14.1% at the end of 2016.

Lloyds increased its total ordinary dividend for the year to 3.05p, up 20% from 2.55p in 2016.

Underlying profit grew 8% to £8.5bn, with an underlying return on tangible equity of 15.6%.

Net income rose 5% to £17.5bn as net interest margin increased to 2.86%. Net interest margin is expected to improve to 2.9% in 2018.

The lender said it expects to deliver an improved return on tangible equity (RoTE) of 14.0 to 15.0% from 2019 onwards on a higher CET1 capital base of circa 13% plus a management buffer of around 1%.

'2017 has been a landmark year in which the group has made significant strategic progress and returned to full private ownership,' the company said in statement.

'We have delivered another year of strong financial performance in 2017 with increased profits and returns on both a statutory and underlying basis, strong capital generation and increased capital returns.'

Morgan Stanley today reaffirms its equal weight investment rating on Lloyds Banking Group PLC ORD (LON:LLOY) and raised its price target to 78p (from 75p).

Going for 70 :-)