I am continuing my review this stock (NYSE-BCS) today as I have not yet reviewed it and the 2008 year end annual statement has came in. I also own this stock. According to Quicken, I have made a return of 2.25% per year in Canadian currency terms on this stock since I bought it in March 2000. On a US currency basis, I have made 5.5% per year. This bank has been hard hit by recent economic problems. This is the only foreign stock I own.
It took me a while to find information on Insider Buying and Insider Selling on this stock. What I found eventually, was there has been no insider trading activity within the last 6 months. For Canadian stock, I can find out about Insider trading for the last year, but it is harder to find such things out on foreign stock. I also found out that there is no person who owns more than 1% of the shares on this stock.
I can obtain my spreadsheet ratios and the Graham Price because I have a spreadsheet. It is also a bit confusing as I am dealing with 3 different currencies. First, for the P/E ratio I get a current P/E ratio of 16 and a forward (2010) P/E ratio of 11.5. These seem to be in line what others get. My spreadsheet shows that the 5 year average is 16.5 and the 5 year low is 13.5. I am doing the P/E ratios in US currency. The current P/E ratio is ok, but it is certainly not low.
When I look at the Graham Price I find that current price is about 55% less the Graham Price, using the UK Pound and 58% less the Graham Price using the US$. There are difference is what earnings are expect on this stock in US$ and UK £. There are often differences in stock prices between US markets and UK markets that cannot be accounted for simply by the difference in these currencies.
The Price/Book Value Ratio looks very good, whereby the currency ratio is only 40% of the 10 year average in UK £. This ratio was very low at the end of 2008, the last statement reporting date. However, at the end of 2008, the stock price was very low. This stock price is up more than 130% in US$ and up more than 145% in UK£. The last ratio to talk about is the Accrual Ratio. At the end of April 2008, it was negative and this is good. After the 2nd quarter of 2009, it is still low at 2%. This is in UK£. However, this ratio does not change with currency.
Looking at the charts, I compared this stock to the DJ Financial Index, as this seems to be the most appropriate one. What I find is that for all periods, except those shorter than 1 year, this stock has done as well as the DJ Financial Index. For periods shorter than 1 year, this stock has done much better than the DJ Financial Index.
When I look at analysts’ recommendations, the consensus is a Hold in the US and a Buy in Canada. There appear to be ratings of Buy, Hold and Sell on this stock. It is hard to know how many analysts are following this stock, but there certainly are some. (See my site for information on analyst ratings.)
As I said yesterday, I am not planning on selling at the present time. But then I do not have much invested and by this investment, I get to see what is happening in banking outside of Canada.
This is a bank. Barclays is a global financial services provider, engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services all over the world. Its web site is www.barclays.com. See my spreadsheet at www.spbrunner.com/stocks/bcs.htm.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website at www.spbrunner.com/stocks.html for a list of the stocks for which I have put up spreadsheets.
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