Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Raises Position in Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 897,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,756 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Barclays were worth $11,929,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Henry James International Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Barclays in the fourth quarter worth approximately $438,000. ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new stake in shares of Barclays in the fourth quarter worth $21,514,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in Barclays in the 4th quarter worth approximately $599,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Barclays by 3,073.2% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 689,413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,052,000 after buying an additional 667,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in Barclays during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,647,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on BCS. BNP Paribas raised Barclays from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered Barclays from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Barclays Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BCS opened at $15.66 on Wednesday. Barclays PLC has a 52 week low of $8.63 and a 52 week high of $16.23. The firm has a market cap of $56.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.33, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.25.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.15. Barclays had a net margin of 20.81% and a return on equity of 7.74%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Barclays PLC will post 2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barclays Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.2737 per share. This is an increase from Barclays’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a yield of 2.7%. Barclays’s dividend payout ratio is 28.80%.

About Barclays

Barclays PLC provides various financial services in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The company operates through Barclays UK and Barclays International division segments. It offers financial services, such as retail banking, credit cards, wholesale banking, investment banking, wealth management, and investment management services.