Barclays’ share price sank on Thursday as investors reacted coolly to half-year trading numbers.
Trading at 157p per share, the high street bank was 4.4% lower on the day, making it one of the FTSE 100’s biggest fallers.
Total income rose 2% to £13.5 billion in the first half, falling short of City expectations. During the April to June quarter turnover dropped 6%, to £6.3 billion.
Income at Barclays UK rose 16% in the first half, but turnover at its investment bank tumbled 10% due to reduced client activity and lower fees.
Despite this mixed result, Barclays’ pre-tax profits jumped 22% during the January to June period, to £4.6 billion.
First-half income was boosted by a further pickup in the net interest margin (NIM), which gauges the difference between the interest the bank offers to savers and what it charges borrowers.
This improved to 3.2% from 2.67% a year earlier as the Bank of England continued to ramp up interest rates. However, Barclays warned that its NIM for the full year is likely to come in below first-half levels, at 3.15%.
Total operating expenses dropped 12% year on year to £8.1 billion. But Barclays had to set aside another £896 million in the first half to cover bad loans, up from £341 million in the same 2022 period. This was also higher than broker estimates.
The bank has now racked up more than £2 billion of credit impairment charges since the start of 2022.
The bank’s common tier equity 1 (CET1) capital ratio edged higher in the first half, to 13.8% from 13.6% a year earlier.
Dividend Hiked, Buyback Announced
Barclays’ profit jump encouraged it to announce a 20% increase in the interim dividend, to 2.7p per share. The company also announced plans to launch a share buyback programme of up to £750 million.
Chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan said that “we have positioned Barclays carefully for this mixed macroeconomic environment and delivered a consistent performance in the second quarter.”
He added that “through our diverse sources of income, prudent risk management, and ongoing cost discipline we have again demonstrated the stability and strength of the franchise we have built over many years.”
Lukewarm Reception
Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, commented that “despite a challenging backdrop, Barclays, and indeed most of the UK’s major banks, are sitting on robust capital positions.”
But he noted the jump in loan impairments as well as the bank’s reduced NIM forecasts. He said that “unlike Lloyds… Barclays has gone the other way and dropped its full-year margin outlook for the UK division.”
Britzman noted that “higher base rates have acted as a tailwind, but headwinds from the mortgage book and consumers shifting away from current accounts in search of better rates limit the benefits and are working against margins.”
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