Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) was upgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Lloyds Banking Group Trading Up 2.0 %

NYSE LYG opened at $3.90 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.98. The company has a market cap of $59.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.80 and a beta of 1.31. Lloyds Banking Group has a 1 year low of $2.42 and a 1 year high of $3.91.

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $9.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.76 billion. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 8.46% and a net margin of 11.45%. Equities research analysts forecast that Lloyds Banking Group will post 0.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Lloyds Banking Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LYG. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Lloyds Banking Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $71,000. Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its holdings in Lloyds Banking Group by 176.7% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 58,548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $183,000 after purchasing an additional 37,392 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Lloyds Banking Group by 36.6% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 757,336 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,363,000 after purchasing an additional 202,862 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its holdings in Lloyds Banking Group by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 153,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $478,000 after purchasing an additional 17,438 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Lloyds Banking Group by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,961,137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,119,000 after purchasing an additional 255,668 shares during the period. 2.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lloyds Banking Group Company Profile

Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers.