It has been a rollercoaster year for UK shares, with coronavirus sending a wave of uncertainty through the economy. For investors in well known companies like Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY), the question is: where will prices go from here?
Lloyds Banking is part of an elite club of UK shares which all have market capitalisations in excess of £1 billion. The stock is currently valued at £27,971m.
This special group of large-caps has a powerful presence in the investment funds and pension portfolios of millions of savers. So their performance is closely watched.
Over the past 12 months, the Lloyds Banking share price has seen an absolute move of -30.6%.
Bearing in mind that volatility over the past year has impacted on some sectors worse than others, it’s also worth thinking about that performance in the context of the overall market.
On a relative basis, shares in Lloyds Banking have moved by -25.6% over the past year and by 22.4% over the past six months.
But what now?
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Do analysts rate it as a buy, sell or hold?
Regardless of recent performance, the main question for investors is what the future holds. In uncertain economic conditions, it's often difficult to get an accurate view. The good news is that analysts generally understand the market's biggest businesses better than most, so they are well-placed to make predictions. That shows up in their Buy, Hold and Sell recommendations.
Among the analysts covering Lloyds Banking, there are currently:
- 3 Buy recommendations
- 7 Hold recommendations
- 0 Sell recommendations
With this kind of information, it's possible to start forming a view about the outlook for any share. A combination of recent price performance and analyst recommendations gives you a flavour of whether the market is expecting a bright future - or whether there are causes for concern.
It's also worth looking at the profile of the stock to understand whether it has strong positive exposure to important factors like Quality, Value and Momentum. On that basis, Stockopedia currently classifies Lloyds Banking as a turnaround. You can read more about what that means here.
What does this mean for potential investors?
Lloyds Banking is one of the most closely watched shares in the market. But while price trends and broker recommendations can give you an idea about the sentiment around a stock, they can't tell you everything.
To get a better understanding of the overall investment case, it's worth doing some investigation yourself. Indeed, we've identified some areas of concern with Lloyds Banking that you can find out about here.