London, Feb 12, 2026, 07:52 GMT — Premarket
- Barclays shares last closed at 477.50 pence on Wednesday, up 0.65%
- The bank disclosed the first purchases under its new £1 billion share buyback
- Focus is on delivery of higher 2028 return targets, and U.S. consumer fee risks
Barclays shares are likely to stay in focus on Thursday after the bank disclosed its first stock purchases under a new £1 billion buyback programme. (Investegate)
The move matters now because Barclays is leaning harder on capital returns to keep investors onside as it tries to lift profitability, with much of the heavier lifting pinned on its U.S. business. Any early signal on the pace and price of the buyback feeds straight into that debate. (TradingView)
Barclays ended Wednesday at 477.50 pence, up 3.10 pence, or 0.65%, leaving the stock below recent peaks but still one of the better performers in the UK banking pack over the past year. (Hargreaves Lansdown)
In a filing on Thursday, Barclays said it bought 4,159,750 ordinary shares for cancellation on Feb. 11, paying between 474.20 pence and 487.95 pence, with a volume-weighted average price of 481.3216 pence. (Investegate)
The buyback follows Barclays’ full-year results and target reset earlier this week, when it said profit before tax rose 12% in 2025 to 9.1 billion pounds and it now aims for a return on tangible equity above 14% by 2028. Chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan said the bank would return more than 15 billion pounds of capital to shareholders between 2026 and 2028. Finance director Anna Cross also flagged “a number of levers” to blunt the impact of a proposed U.S. cap on credit-card fees, while Citi analysts described the new targets as somewhat muted. (Reuters)
Investors are also watching whether Barclays can fix a softer patch in deal fees. The bank reported investment bank income rose 11% to 13 billion pounds in 2025, but investment banking fees fell 2%, lagging Wall Street rivals. (Reuters)
There is a downside case. A sharper-than-expected hit from any U.S. credit-card fee limits, or weaker deal-making, would put more pressure on Barclays’ plan to lift returns while still paying out capital, especially if rate cuts squeeze interest income across the sector. (Reuters)
Pay is in the mix too. Barclays lifted Venkatakrishnan’s 2025 pay package to 15 million pounds and said its staff bonus pool rose 15% to 2.2 billion pounds, a reminder that cost discipline will be judged alongside buybacks and targets. (Reuters)
For broader read-through, traders have UK bank results in front of them, with NatWest due on Friday, Feb. 13, and HSBC on Feb. 25, both expected to spell out their own targets in a sector that is still trying to pivot from rate-driven earnings to more fee income. (Reuters)
