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

I just get worrıed that the real problem ıs Debt. On all fronts. Recently ıts not front and centre. Soon wıll be when the fırst shoe drops.

I don't buy or sell by broker rec's , but .

5 Feb Jefferies... 287.00 Buy

BARC seems to have moved in line with the UK market, so my simple logic is that as there is still some downside to come (for a whole host of reasons, Brexit, oil, $ strength, China, commodities etc). BARC itself is nowhere near as profitable as it once was in the days of BarCap, so I can't see it being as attractive to investors, plus there is still the investigation into the Dubai bailout details to be concluded. I am waiting for sub 150p, but confess I may miss the boat if the market picks up. FTSE & DOW the trend is still down (not sure why some continually want to go long) so am happy to wait for the moment. AIMO.

"FTSE & DOW the trend is still down (not sure why some continually want to go long) so am happy to wait for the moment. AIMO."

I suspect going long for others on here is only for the short term Harry, it certainly is for me.

I don't s/b myself, but I often think people seem to be more comfortable going long than short. Most on the FTSE thread seem to prefer 'Long' trades.

The Trend is your friend!

Kick against it with trepidation!!!

StockMarketWire.com
Barclays reports improved profit before tax in its core business but posts statutory pre-tax profits of GBP2,073m for 2015 - down 8% - after absorbing net losses on adjusting items of GBP3,330m (2014: GBP3,246m).

Group adjusted total income net of insurance claims decreased 5% to £24,528m, with Core total income in line at £24,692m (2014: £24,678m) and Non-Core total income reducing to a net expense of £164m (2014: income of £1,050m)

Barclays says driving efficiency remains a significant focus for the Group, with total adjusted operating expenses reducing 6% to £16,998m. Adjusted operating expenses excluding costs to achieve reduced 4% to £16,205m, driven by savings from strategic cost programmes.

The Core business performed well reflecting continued good progress. This resulted in a 3% increase in profit before tax to £6,862m, with improvements in all Core operating businesses, including Africa Banking on a constant currency basis.

The improved profit before tax in the Core business was driven by positive cost to income jaws across all Core operating businesses. Combined with the increase in average allocated equity of £5bn to £47bn, the return on average equity for the Core business was 9.0% (2014: 9.2%) and the return on average tangible equity was 10.9% (2014: 11.3%).

The accelerated rundown of the Non-Core business resulted in a 2% reduction in Group adjusted profit before tax to £5,403m due to a 24% increase in the Non-Core loss before tax to £1,459m.

The group reports strong progress in the rundown of the Non-Core business continued, with a further reduction in risk weighted assets of £29bn to £47bn contributing to the increase in the CET1 ratio. Non-Core leverage exposure decreased to £121bn (2014: £277bn). The announced sales of the Portuguese and Italian retail businesses in H215, due to be completed in H116, are expected to result in a further £2.5bn reduction in Non-Core risk weighted assets. Non-Core period end allocated equity reduced to £7bn (2014: £11bn).

Group capital and leverage ratios continued to strengthen. The fully loaded common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio increased 110 basis points to 11.4% driven by a reduction in risk weighted assets of $44bn to £358bn. The leverage ratio increased 80 basis points to 4.5% driven by a reduction in leverage exposure of £205bn to £1,028bn.

Barclays also announced its intention to sell down its 62.3% interest in our African business, BAGL, over the coming two to three years, to a level which will permit us to deconsolidate it from an accounting and regulatory perspective, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals if and as required.

It says BAGL is a well-diversified business and a high quality franchise. However the stake in BAGL presents specific challenges to Barclays as owners, such as the level of capital held in respect of BAGL, the international reach of the UK Bank Levy, the GSIB buffer, and MREL/TLAC and other regulatory requirements. BAGL is today reporting a 17% return on equity for 2015 in its standalone local currency results versus the 8.7% return reported.

Barlays made additional provisions relating to payment protection insurance (PPI) of £1,450m were made in Q415 based on an updated estimate of future redress and associated costs following a slower than expected decline in claims volumes during H215.

Barclays declared a final dividend of 3.5p per share, making 6.5p in total for 2015. But it says it intends to pay a dividend of 3.0p for 2016 and 2017.

Chief executive Jes Staley said: "Our 2015 performance demonstrates the strength of Barclays' Core business, as well as the importance of continuing to make progress in running down Non-Core and controlling our costs to deliver the returns our shareholders deserve in a reasonable timeframe.

"PCB and Barclaycard delivered excellent results, and Africa Banking also performed well despite currency headwinds. The Investment Bank year on year performance was stronger as the benefits of the strategy implemented since May 2014 were realised.

"Risk weighted assets in the Non-Core were down further to £47bn, having more than halved since the unit was created, and maintaining this very good momentum is critical to our future success. Group adjusted operating expenses were nearly £100m below guidance, and we have seen our capital position strengthen further with our CET1 ratio increasing to 11.4% and our leverage ratio improving to 4.5%. What all of this illustrates is that Barclays is fundamentally on the right path, and is, at its core, a very good business.

"There is of course more we need to do and areas where I believe we can move much faster to deliver the high performing Group that Barclays can and should be. 2016 will consequently be a year of accelerated delivery from a good base."

BARC shares halted on trading in London due to high volatility.

Haitong Securities Buy 153.65 300.00 300.00 Reiterates

Who the hell are Haitong Secs??????

Haitong Securities :-)

Hmmm.....a state owned Chinese securities and investment company!!!! Forgive my scepticism!!! ;o)

I wonder where these go from here . Lloyds have bounced back strongly .

Never thought I'd say it, but LLOY looks to be one of the better bets as far as banks go.

BARC have slashed the Divi in more than half.

Summary from Shore Capital today:
"Barclays has published a pretty dismal set of full year results to 31st December 2015 with adjusted pre-tax profit of £5.4bn (Shore: £5.5bn; consensus: £5.8bn) falling short of our own and company-collated consensus expectations primarily due to weaker than anticipated income performance. In addition, the group took another £2.1bn of below-the-line charges in Q4 including £1.45bn for UK customer redress (PPI etc) which resulted in a statutory pre-tax profit of £2.1bn (Shore: £2.3bn) and a Q4 loss of £1.9bn.

While profitability disappointed, capital ratios came in ahead of expectations with a period core tier 1 ratio of 11.4% (Shore: 11.1%) and leverage ratio of 4.5% (Shore: 4.1%). However, TNAV per share was 15p weaker than we forecast at 275p (Shore: 290p). The dividend per share was held at 6.5p (Shore: 6.5p), as previously guided by management, but management has announced that it plans to cut the full year dividend to 3p per share in 2016F and 2017F in order to conserve capital.

Management has also announced a package of strategic measures to improve performance:

In addition to revising guidance on the dividend, management has also confirmed that it plans to exit its African operations (BAGL*) over the course of the next two years which, combined with the dividend cut, is expected to add around 1.0ppts to the core tier 1 ratio, with management targeting operating with a ratio 1.0-1.5ppts above the regulatory minimum in due course. We note that the minimum requirement appears to have increased by 1.1ppts to 11.7% (from 10.6% previously), implying a new minimum core tier 1 ratio requirement of 12.7%-13.2%. This is much more in line with the 13% minimum that peers are targeting.

Management has also announced that a further £8bn of RWAs will be transferred into non-core in, what it describes as, a ‘one time expansion’ …. hmmm. That said, management is still guiding that it can reduce non-core RWAs down to £20bn by the end of 2017, which is unchanged.

Management has set a new target of reducing new core bank costs to £12.8bn (ex BAGL) for 2016F versus £14.5bn (inc BAGL) previously. Barclays African operations had total costs of £2.3bn in 2015, so it looks to us like the cost guidance is actually slightly worse on a like for like basis. We await further clarification on this. The target is for a group cost:income ratio of less than 60% in due course versus 69% (adjusted) in 2015A.

It looks also like return on equity guidance has been dropped, with management now simply expecting the core and group ROTE to coverge over time with the aim of achieving an ‘attractive return for shareholders’, but we cannot see where this has been defined.

Overall, this is a pretty disappointing update from Barclays and we suspect the market will not be too impressed by the changes to guidance or the measures being taken to improve performance. Cost cutting does not seem to be aggressive enough, to us, and the lack of formal guidance on ROTE is a little worrying. Based on the last reported TNAV per share of 275p the shares are trading on a P/TNAV of just 0.6x with a prospective dividend yield (based on 3p of DPS) of under 2%. The stock may seem optically cheap on P/TNAV metrics, but we continue to prefer the better capitalised Lloyds^ (LLOY, Buy at 72p) and RBS^ (RVS, Buy at 224p). HOLD."

2 Mar JP Morgan... 250.00 Overweight
2 Mar Goldman Sachs 310.00 Conviction Buy
2 Mar Deutsche Bank 255.00 Buy

Berenberg today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) and cut its price target to 170p (from 200p).

Bouncing back nicely .

Nomura today downgrades its investment rating on Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) to neutral (from buy) and cut its price target to 185p (from 210p).