4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Lloyds
Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, British banking giant Lloyds Banking Group (NYS: LYG) has earned a respected four-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Lloyds' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Lloyds facts
Headquarters (Founded) | London (1985) |
Market Cap | $32.7 billion |
Industry | Diversified banks |
Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $20.94 billion |
Management | CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio (since March 2011) CFO Tim Tookey (since October 2008) |
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) | 3.9% |
Competitors | Citigroup (NYS: C) HSBC Holdings (NYS: HBC) |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 95% of the 1,111 members who have rated Lloyds believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include Teacherman1 and fellow Fool Sean Williams (TMFUltraLong), who is ranked in the top 0.1% of our community.
Late last month, Teacherman1 tapped Lloyds as a particularly bankable bet:
Barring the "end of the world" economically, this is a great price for patient, longer term investors. They are going through a lot of changes and getting their "house" in order. While this will take some time, I am very confident they will get there, and probably much sooner than most people think.
In fact, Lloyds currently sports a cheapish forward P/E of 5.2. That represents a slight discount to other big banking plays like Citigroup (5.5), HSBC (7.9), and Wells Fargo (NYS: WFC) (6.5).
Sean elaborates on the bargain opportunity:
Lloyds has very little exposure to the sovereign debt crisis. Lloyds also has to deal with shedding some of its branches. Despite this, Lloyds is trading well below its book value and looks poised to make (by my estimates, not Wall Street's) $0.15-$0.20 next year. While that doesn't make this company cheap, it has a very good chance of surprising a lot of people in 2013. ... If there's any banking system in Europe worth buying, it'd be in the UK and Lloyds seems like the bank with the least surprise losses on the horizon.
What do you think about Lloyds, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!
Interested in another easy way to track Lloyds?Add it to your watchlist.
At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorBrian Pacamparaowns no position in any of the companies mentioned. The Fool owns shares of and has created a ratio put spread position on Wells Fargo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Fool'sdisclosure policyalways gets a perfect score.
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