Erste Group Bank Reaffirms Hold Rating for Barclays (NYSE:BCS)

Barclays (NYSE:BCS)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Erste Group Bank in a research report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports.

BCS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Barclays in a research report on Tuesday, December 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Barclays from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Barclays Price Performance

BCS stock traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $22.98. 539,073 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,769,549. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $25.83 and its 200 day moving average is $22.94. Barclays has a 12-month low of $12.14 and a 12-month high of $27.70. The company has a market cap of $79.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.45, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $72.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.23 billion. Barclays had a net margin of 21.91% and a return on equity of 8.33%. On average, research analysts expect that Barclays will post 2 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Barclays

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Barclays by 72.8% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 47,051 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $723,000 after buying an additional 19,818 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Barclays by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 3,868 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH acquired a new stake in shares of Barclays in the 2nd quarter valued at about $192,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Barclays by 217.6% during the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 47,436 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $882,000 after buying an additional 32,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in Barclays by 289.6% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,991,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,031,000 after buying an additional 1,480,716 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

About Barclays

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is a British multinational bank and financial services company headquartered in London. The firm provides a broad range of banking and financial products to individual, corporate and institutional customers. Its core activities span retail and business banking, credit cards and payments, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management.

In retail and business banking, Barclays offers deposit accounts, mortgages, personal and business loans, and card services.