Barclays (BARC)

Barclays is one of the most US-exposed of the UK Banks, which will see the bank announce a £1bn one-off tax charge. Also in focus will be the performance of its trading division after another tough year for investment banks across the world. Will recent market volatility have been enough to perk up its trading floors?

While Barclays shares had a torrid 2017, falling by 27% from February’s 18-month highs of 244p to November lows of 177p, a strong 2017 Santa rally helped shares to recover some losses. It has been more of the same in 2018, however, as shares retreated as much as 11.7% from January’s 6-month highs of 212p to lows of 187p.

Will the investment bank be able to provide enough bullish ammunition for investors to return to January highs? Or will the tax charge, further inadequate trading performance and the overhang of the SFO investigation weigh?

Will Barclays break out to 2017 highs of 244p (+23%) or fall back to 2017 lows of 177p (-11%)?

• Shares have been narrowing between 190p-210p. Will they break down or break out?
• Relative Strength Index (RSI) has bullishly crossed 50 and Stochastics have turned back from oversold
• Momentum has turned positive for the first time since January after recovering from a 9-month low
• Brokers are positively biased, with over 70% of brokers holding a 12-month target above current level

Broker Consensus: 44% Buy, 36% Hold, 20% Sell

Bullish: AlphaValue, Buy, Target 269p, +35% (8 Feb 18)

Average Target: 205.2p, +3.0% (15 Feb 18)

Bearish: Day by Day, Sell, Target 142.4p, -28% (15 Nov 17)

Pricing data sourced from Bloomberg on 15 February. Please contact us for a full, up to date rundown.