Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Lloyds Banking Group. It’s trading around $3.50. Is it a good buy for long term holding? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Lloyds Banking Group plc (ADR), $3.74, symbol LYG on New York (Shares outstanding: 16.7 billion; Market cap: $62.6 billion), is now majority owned by the U.K. government. Lloyds is cutting as many as 25,000 jobs as a result of its purchase of HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) last year. This number could rise even higher as the complicated process of merging the two banks continues. Government ownership of Lloyds may slow its growth. The government may require the bank to hold more government bonds and push down their ratio of loans to deposits, which will hurt profits. However, it may also serve to stabilize the bank’s operations and make it more attractive to depositors. Lloyds doesn’t inspire our enthusiasm and we don’t recommend it. We prefer the big-five Canadian banks for new investment. ..