Jones Financial Companies Lllp Has $456,000 Stake in Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG) by 17.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 167,816 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 24,478 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Lloyds Banking Group were worth $456,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LYG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group by 58.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,659,629 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,778,000 after buying an additional 2,456,914 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group during the third quarter worth $1,035,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group by 20.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,055,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,293,000 after buying an additional 180,178 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in Lloyds Banking Group by 58.3% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,703,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,316,000 after buying an additional 627,592 shares during the period. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 288,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $786,000 after purchasing an additional 39,685 shares during the last quarter. 2.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Lloyds Banking Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $2.75.

Lloyds Banking Group Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of NYSE LYG opened at $3.66 on Tuesday. Lloyds Banking Group plc has a twelve month low of $2.42 and a twelve month high of $3.91. The company has a market capitalization of $55.51 billion, a PE ratio of 11.08 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $3.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.99.

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $9.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.76 billion. Lloyds Banking Group had a net margin of 11.45% and a return on equity of 8.46%. As a group, research analysts expect that Lloyds Banking Group plc will post 0.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lloyds Banking Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $0.1035 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is a boost from Lloyds Banking Group’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.05. This represents a yield of 4%. Lloyds Banking Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.61%.

About Lloyds Banking Group

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.