Barclays (NYSE:BCS) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on BCS. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Barclays in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Barclays in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Barclays in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Barclays Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of Barclays stock opened at $20.06 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.16 billion, a PE ratio of 8.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95. Barclays has a 52-week low of $12.14 and a 52-week high of $27.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.45, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $9.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.23 billion. Barclays had a net margin of 21.91% and a return on equity of 8.33%. On average, analysts anticipate that Barclays will post 2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Barclays

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Barclays by 13.2% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 83,062,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,544,139,000 after acquiring an additional 9,692,999 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Barclays during the 4th quarter valued at about $141,248,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Barclays by 793.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,777,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,073,000 after purchasing an additional 4,242,360 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Barclays during the 2nd quarter valued at about $57,568,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Barclays by 1,719.7% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,031,480 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,765,000 after purchasing an additional 1,919,843 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.