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 :-)

Dividend now 3.05p giving a yield of 4.4%.

Share buyback of £1bn.

Current market cap £50m, so i will own the company in 50 years.

Or maybe it they buy back enough billions the share price will go to 550p which would be nice

Going going gone with the Market today
more good results to come next year
cheap on a PE of 8.8 for 2018

How Lloyds Bank shares can hit 92p

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP COMMENCES SHARE BUYBACK PROGRAMME

Lloyds Banking Group plc (the "Company") is today launching a share buyback programme to repurchase up to £1 billion of ordinary shares, as previously announced on 21 February 2018.

The Company has entered into an agreement with UBS AG, London Branch ("UBS") to conduct the share buyback programme on its behalf and to make trading decisions under the programme independently of the Company. Under the terms of the programme, the maximum consideration is £1 billion. The programme will commence on 8 March 2018 and will end no later than 4 February 2019. The sole purpose of the programme is to reduce the ordinary share capital of the Company.

UBS will purchase the Company's ordinary shares as principal and sell them on to the Company in accordance with the terms of their engagement. The Company intends to cancel the shares it purchases through the programme.

Any purchases of ordinary shares by the Company in relation to this announcement will be made in accordance with certain pre-set parameters set out in the terms of UBS's engagement, the general authority of the Company to repurchase shares granted by shareholders at the Company's annual general meeting held on 11 May 2017 (which permits the Company to purchase no more than 7,154,088,636 of the Company's ordinary shares), the EU Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014), the Commission Delegated Regulation (2016/1052) and Chapter 12 of the Financial Conduct Authority's Listing Rules.

For the avoidance of doubt, no repurchases will be made in the United States or in respect of the Company's American Depositary Receipts.

- END -

Thanks CC for the L-T share-graph.... thought provoking, eh?

I don't recall ANY company that does "Buybacks" ever increasing shareholder value.... a minor-rise maybe; but fundamentally that money would be better in the hands of retail investors by way of a special dividend. THAT would make investors believe the stock was worth holding; maybe Buying some more with the hand-out.

The issue with Buybacks, IMHO is that whilst Institutions like it, since mathematically it really does increase the worth of the remaining shares... as soon as the Institutions Sell a few, the sp falls to earlier values..... since it only rose due to the cancellation. The net-worth of the Company really hasn't changed enough.... only who has the money.
Previously it was held by the Company as part of its Market-Worth ( i.e. the Mkt Value, plus Buildings & Cash, etc., minus Liabilities - which might include Pension Fund Deficits + PPI-Oops! ).
After the Buyback, the Co. has less Cash, but the Market-Worth aspect has increased very slightly, due to the rise in sp. It's a neutral position, IMHO.
-Yet the now-reduced amount of actual Cash means they can't invest in some worthwhile enterprise . . . difficult for Banks, naturally....but many Businesses could invest ( if they were awake to their Market ), in some Enterprise that would soon show some progress as a result of the Cash and maybe Group-Expertise.
To an extent "Buybacks" tell potential-investors that the Co. has no Ideas for the future. This is maybe why they tell the Market, months in advance, so when it happens they can say:- "...it was discussed / agreed some while prior" (( As if that makes it OK ! Huh! )).
Well I'm waiting for LLOY to clear their PPI liabilities . . . and then I might invest some more . . . but I suspect this could be some while to come.

A number of larger companies are seeming to carry out share buybacks over the last 12-18miths.

To me, it suggests lack of confidence in investing for the future.

I have to admit bought and sold and bought lloyds a few times.

Hope for 85p/share. (Possibly more.)

That definition of market worth is a new one, hangon. You should patent it :) The market cap does not appear in the balance sheet so you can't mix it up with assets and liabilities. My opinion is that Lloy actually satisfied everyone with the mixture of dividends and buyback. While the buyback will reduce the (cash) assets on the balance sheet, it should result in an increase in the earnings per share which is the normal metric for determining the share price.
Lloy may not be sexy, but it is probably the safest bank share available from Europe today.

Deutsche Bank today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Lloyds Banking Group PLC ORD (LON:LLOY) and cut its price target to 80p (from 83p)

Swines!

Bought some today at 64.54 to sit on for 10 years. Collect the dividend and capital appreciation

I'm generally supportive of the buy-back. If they have cash they do not know what to do with generated out of profits best to improve EPS rather than sit on it.

Also, it means I pay tax in a later period as I've not got them all in a tax free wrapper.


Now, what was that target £1 by the end of the year or something. That would do just fine.

CC , I said by xmas but didn't say which one :-)

Had a dabble today with Lloyds. 72p good enough for me hopefully in next few weeks.

Interim Management Statement

HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2018
Strong financial performance with significant increase in profit and returns on a statutory and underlying basis

· Statutory profit before tax of £1.6 billion, 23 per cent higher, with return on tangible equity increasing to 12.3 per cent, reflecting improved underlying profit and lower below the line items

· Net income at £4.3 billion, 4 per cent higher, with net interest margin increasing to 2.93 per cent

· Cost:income ratio further improved to 47.8 per cent with positive jaws of 9 per cent

· Asset quality remains strong with an asset quality ratio of 23 basis points

· Balance sheet strength maintained with strong CET1 capital increase of 50 basis points in the quarter and CET1 ratio of 14.4 per cent pre 2018 dividend accrual1

· Tangible net assets per share higher at 52.3 pence2, driven by strong statutory profit

· Strong start to the year with no change to the financial targets for 2018

more.....

Shore Capital today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Lloyds Banking Group PLC ORD (LON:LLOY) and set its price target at 66p.

Will LLoyds reach 100

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/lloyds-share-price-reach-100p-090044577.html

Do Fool get their ideas from Dil

:-)

StockMarketWire.com
Lloyds Banking Group said Friday it had agreed the sale of its Irish residential mortgage portfolio to Barclays Bank for around £4bn.

The transaction - expected to be completed in the second half of 2018 - would generate approximately 25 basis points of CET1 capital upon completion, slightly better than originally expected, Lloyds said.

The transaction would also generate a pre-tax loss on sale of roughly £110m, which would be recognised in the first half results. The sale was in line with the group's strategy of becoming a low risk, UK focused bank, Lloyds said.

'Following the transaction the group will have minimal exposure to Ireland and the total outstanding run-off portfolio will be around £4bn, less than 1% of the group's loans and advances to customers,' it added.