30 April 2025
If you are covering the latest financial results from Barclays, please find below a comment from Will Howlett, financials analyst at Quilter Cheviot:
“Barclays has been one of the winners of the recent tariff induced volatility, with a solid set of first quarter results driven by trading revenues in the investment bank ahead of Donald Trump’s announcements earlier this month. Barclays has been on somewhat of a good run of momentum and these results represent a further quarter of progress towards its 2026 targets set out two years ago.
“While Barclays is looking to reduce the reliance on the investment bank and drive growth from other areas, the current market volatility should keep trading activity elevated over the short-term. Pleasingly, the bank has also upgraded its guidance for its net interest income, which given the uncertainty on the path of interest rates just now is good to see.
“One thing to keep an eye on going forward to Barclays’ loan losses as these are currently a little higher than expected, both in the US and within the UK. Barclays says it has adjusted its modelling in light of US macroeconomic uncertainty and is stressing that the loan portfolio is not deteriorating, but given the current backdrop it is a small concern nonetheless.
“That said, Barclays is executing well on its strategy and has some very shareholder-friendly policies in place over the coming 18 months. It continues to target a return to shareholders of at least £10bn between 2024 and 2026, which equates to around 23% of the market cap of the company. Given Barclays has momentum but remains undervalued compared to European peers, it looks to be an attractive company is the face of market volatility.”
