barclays will ge coming out with trading update on 07.05.2009 It is expected to report profits higher than market expectations.

A good Buy Medium to Long term

Numis Securities has upgraded its rating for UK banking group Barclays from 'reduce' to 'hold' and hiked its target price from 222p to 274p, saying that investment risks have already partially been priced in.

Analysts Mike Trippitt said that while Barclays awaits announcements from regulators on leverage ratios, its dividend "may well be the release valve for any leverage pressure". However, he said: "Whilst the investment case is muddied by leverage uncertainties, some uncertainty is discounted in recent share price weakness."

sp 264p moving up ahead of final results due 11th February 2004

It would be good to go back 10years with what I know now.

you'ld have been better served going back just 5 years, though some might prefer it if you went back 10 years and stayed there :-)

What goes around comes around!

How about 25 years.

5 years ago was still a better deal if you caught the price at the bottom (about 50p)

I remember when it was 50p only if I wasn't fearful like everyone else and just bought in big all hindsight tho !!

Back in today a bit higher then I liked at 285 but lets see.

Chart wise I think it looking like a steady up trend.

it's prob the best of the big banks to buy into

the market thinks Lloyds atm, results early February will show.

This one was pointed out by Fred last week, now broken out of channel.

Down today but Banks do well (in a so called) recovery. A few resistance points coming up to look out for.

Kamal Ahmed
By Kamal Ahmed

9:30PM GMT 25 Jan 2014

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Barclays is considering ending its £40m-a-year sponsorship of the Premier League after senior figures at the bank said it had “zero value” in the UK.


The bank’s present deal runs until the end of the 2015-16 football season and members of Barclays’ leadership team are concerned that rapid price inflation for sports rights will mean a much higher amount will be demanded by the Premier League for the next three-year deal.


Barclays has been the sponsor of the Premier League since 2001 and agreed to pay £120m in 2012 for the present rights. That was 50pc higher than the previous deal, which cost £82m.


With the battle for television rights between BSkyB and BT driving up costs, Barclays is now concerned that there will be a knock-on effect.


BSkyB’s present Premier League television deal is worth £2.3bn, 40pc more than it paid for its previous agreement. The bank also has to pay additional “activation costs”, such as using social media and television to promote the deal.


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The move is part of a wider review of the bank’s business, which will mean pulling out of “glamour projects” and focusing instead on much higher levels of technology for customers, far fewer staff and fewer branches.

Sources at the bank said that the 140,000 global employees of the bank could fall to 100,000 and the number of branches in the UK will drop from 1,600 to 1,200 over the next six years. Smaller branch-style operations in supermarkets such as Asda will be extended.

“We have some tough decisions to take,” one source said about the loss of staff.

Mobile apps, Skype-style services and “intelligent ATMs” will improve customer service while reducing cost, the bank will argue.

Antony Jenkins, the chief executive of Barclays, wants to see the cost-to-income ratio at the bank fall from above 60pc to around 55pc.

Next month, the bank will publish its “goals” document, which will commit the bank to increasing the return on capital employed so it is higher than the cost of capital and maintaining Core Tier 1 capital above 10.5pc.

It will also demand improvements in customer service in its retail, commercial and investment divisions.

Sources at the bank stressed that Mr Jenkins had yet to come to a final decision on the Premier League but it is understood that senior figures on the board, as well as executives, do not believe it provides value for money.

One said that Barclays did not need promotion in the UK as the bank has high street branches around the country and its name is well known.

“We just need to shut up for five years and get on with our job,” the source said.

Sources at the bank said that the Premier League’s sponsorship deal was most useful for promoting the bank in Asia and Africa but Barclays could now explore other ways of getting its name recognised in overseas territories.

Diageo, for example, sponsors SuperSport television coverage in Africa, which broadcasts Premier League football to 200m viewers. It also directly sponsors leading stars, such as Samuel Eto’o, who plays football for Chelsea and the Cameroon national team.

In December, the bank announced it was pulling out of sponsoring Boris Johnson’s bike hire scheme in London as part of a wider review of its commercial relationships. Mr Jenkins is looking at a number of deals drawn up when his predecessor, Bob Diamond, was chief executive.

Barclays said that it would continue with the bike deal until the end of 2015, at a cost of around £25m.

common sense seems to be taking hold at Barclays if this news is to be believed, good for shareholders.

When they started their sponsorship, they launched a new premiership credit card that offered open ended 0% interest on balance transfers.

They hastily withdrew this offer within a couple of months!

I managed to get quite a bit 'transferred' and had an interest free loan for some years.

04-Feb-14 Barclays BARC Citigroup Buy 264.55p - - Reiteration

04-Feb-14 Barclays BARC Nomura Buy 264.55p 330.00p 330.00p Reiteration

04-Feb-14 Barclays BARC Goldman Sachs Neutral 264.55p 300.00p 300.00p Reiteration

A new disclosure in Barclays PLC's annual financial results Tuesday highlights risks concerning the British bank's potential legal woes in the U.S. Barclays, which has major U.S. operations, said Tuesday there could be "significant consequences for the group's current and future business operations in the U.S." if it were to violate the terms of a 2012 agreement with U.S. prosecutors. The disclosure, on page 122 of Barclays's 2013 financial results and not included in the bank's previous public statements, relates to a nonprosecution agreement that the bank entered into with the U.S. Justice Department when it settled interest-rate-rigging allegations in June 2012. As part of that pact, Barclays admitted wrongdoing and pledged not to commit any crimes in the U.S. for at least two years. In Tuesday's 2013 report, Barclays warned that a breach of any of the agreement's provisions could lead to the bank being prosecuted for the rate-rigging offenses. The bank said for the first time that such action could harm the bank's businesses in the U.S., where it has major investment-banking, wealth-management and credit-card operations. A person close to the bank said that the new disclosure is part of Barclays's efforts to provide "best in class" transparency to investors and doesn't signify any material change from the year before. Another person close to the bank, however, said the item reflects Barclays's perception of the increasing possibility that the bank could find itself being investigated for other criminal matters in the U.S., potentially bringing the bank in violation of the terms of the nonprosecution agreement. Like many banks, Barclays is responding to requests for information from the Justice Department and other authorities that are investigating potential manipulation of foreign-exchange benchmarks. Barclays said Tuesday that it is currently reviewing its foreign-exchange trading over "a several year period through October 2013." Asked Tuesday about the new language relating to the nonprosecution agreement, Barclays Chief Executive Antony Jenkins said the foreign-exchange probe is "in early days, and we don't comment on ongoing investigations."

Barclays PLC (BCS) dropped 3.8% after the bank posted earnings that made "uncomfortable reading," according to Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital. The bank said it aims to shrink its balance sheet by 105 billion pounds ($172 billion) by next year in response to tougher regulation and declining revenue from its investment bank. It also said it will cut up to 12,000 jobs to help reshape its business and cut costs. For all of 2013, Barclays swung to a net profit of GBP540 million, although underlying profit declined compared with 2012. "Certainly a reading that rattles confidence in CEO [Antony] Jenkins's ability to turn around the business by changing the culture, reshaping the balance sheet and repairing the bank's reputation," Siddiqi said in a note. "What's more worrying is that instead of addressing the loss-making investment banking unit, [the] bonus pool was boosted by 10% in 2013 to around GBP2.4 billion. Jenkins says it's in the bank's interest to pay for top performance in an competitive environment," he added.

.

Nice downwards trend building..

3 Reasons I Might Buy Barclays PLC Today
By Mark Stones - Wednesday, 5 March, 2014


How contrarian are you feeling today? Hopefully at least a little, as it’s fair to say not many people like Barclays (LSE: BARC) (NYSE: BCS.US) right now. My own take, however, is a little more favourable.

Results — released in February — were poor. More to the point, and this is where the contrarian part comes in, Barclays’ performance wasn’t even surprising. Nonetheless, investors bolted at a clip. Fancy that.

Now, given you’re here reading this, I’m fairly sure that a market whim isn’t what drives your investment decisions. Rather, the goal is to be as well informed as possible and then make your own judgement.

Here are a few reasons I feel Barclays could make you wealthy.

1. There’s a lot for a low price
It’s safe to say that Barclays has something of a wretched reputation. From being the poster boy for the Libor scandal, to more recent allegations over currency fixing, new chief executive Antony Jenkins has a job on his hands to turn things around.

Moreover, the costs have been enormous. In order to put things right, £1.2bn was spent on restructuring in 2013; while this hurt profits, over the long term earnings generation should become much more efficient.

That’s why — if Barclays meets analyst forecasts of 26p earnings per share — a forward P/E ratio of below 9 appears cheap.

Look at it as a value investment.

2. Profits will get better soon
Secondly, Barclays is well positioned to reap rewards from an upswing in the UK economy, riding the wave of retail stock flotations. Last year Barclays was the number-one bank for flotations ahead of illustrious international competition. Of the 15 companies that came to market in 2013, Barclays worked on seven.

The convenience store McColls and online electricals retailer AO have just floated, while Pets At Home and Poundland will be debuting on the stock market next month, to be followed by a host of other retailers.

Being such a sought after deal maker has big financial rewards — already in 2014 Barclays has earned £344m as an adviser for IPOs in the US.

Barclays’ profits should therefore rise on the improving UK economy and booming equity markets.

3. Market-busting dividends
Of course, one of the main advantages of investing in Barclays is that, unlike some other UK banks, Barclays pays out a dividend. In 2014 analysts are projecting a dividend yield of 5% (for context the FTSE average is 3.5%).

So what we have in Barclays is a banking giant on track for growth, with a dividend that trounces the market, not to mention its world-class investment bank…

... but if a bank does or doesn't fit into your investment strategy, there's a multitude of other ways to improve your returns. For instance, I've mentioned Barclays' impressive dividend, but would you like to know the best way to harness it?