{"id":58205,"date":"2026-04-30T11:43:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T11:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/58205\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T11:43:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T11:43:38","slug":"ubs-upgrades-lloyds-to-buy-with-115p-target-as-first-quarter-beat-highlights-valuation-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/58205\/","title":{"rendered":"UBS upgrades Lloyds to &#8216;buy&#8217; with 115p target as first-quarter beat highlights valuation opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b2243f4ef52e14aa875b4cb4c7570dc0.jpeg\" alt=\"UBS upgrades Lloyds to 'buy' with 115p target as first-quarter beat highlights valuation opportunity\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"641\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> UBS upgrades Lloyds to &#8216;buy&#8217; with 115p target as first-quarter beat highlights valuation opportunity Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">High street bank&#8217;s shares trade at 6% discount to sector despite forecast earnings growth of 17% and a 10% distribution yield<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS has upgraded <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/LLOY.l\" data-ylk=\"slk:Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY)<\/a> to &#8216;buy&#8217; and raised its price target to 115p from 110p, arguing that weak sentiment towards UK domestic banks has created an attractive entry point into a franchise offering sector-leading earnings growth and a double-digit distribution yield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The Swiss bank&#8217;s analysts Jason Napier and Sanjena Dadawala said Lloyds is trading at a 6% discount to European banking sector peers on 2027 earnings, at 8.5 times forecast earnings per share against a sector average of 9.0 times, despite what UBS described as stronger growth prospects than that valuation implies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The upgrade, from &#8216;neutral&#8217;, came after a first-quarter profit beat that UBS said reinforced its positive view, with Lloyds reporting underlying profit before tax 6% ahead of consensus at \u00a32.005 billion, driven by impairment charges that came in 22% below market expectations despite a \u00a3101 million net charge related to updated macroeconomic scenarios.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Net interest income was in line with forecasts, with the bank&#8217;s net interest margin rising 7 basis points quarter on quarter to 317 basis points, and full-year net interest income guidance was nudged up to more than \u00a314.9 billion from approximately \u00a314.9 billion previously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS raised its earnings per share forecasts by 3% to 4% across 2026 to 2028, citing higher income and increased buyback expectations, and said it expects Lloyds to compound earnings per share at 17% annually between 2025 and 2028.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The Swiss investment bank said a strategic update scheduled for 30 July alongside half-year results represents a positive catalyst, at which management is expected to set out a roadmap for double-digit earnings growth, improving efficiency, and a return on tangible equity approaching 20% by 2030, supported by investment in artificial intelligence, wealth management and insurance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Lloyds shares are currently trading at 97p, giving a forecast total return of approximately 20% to UBS&#8217;s 115p target, inclusive of a projected distribution yield of around 10% in the current financial year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UBS upgrades Lloyds to &#8216;buy&#8217; with 115p target as first-quarter beat highlights valuation opportunity Proactive uses images sourced&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[2125,1079,32351,3272,14077,5255,223],"class_list":{"0":"post-58205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ubs","8":"tag-earnings-growth","9":"tag-earnings-per-share","10":"tag-jason-napier","11":"tag-lloyds","12":"tag-lloyds-banking-group-plc","13":"tag-target","14":"tag-ubs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116493484245111117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}