London, June 24, 2026, 09:33 BST
Barclays was down 0.3% at 510.2 pence just after the open Wednesday, with the bank worth around £68.9 billion. Shares started at 513.1p and traded about 8% off their 52-week high.
The bank had bought back 101,405,130 shares as of June 19, paying a volume-weighted average price of 449.5595p per share. That works out to £455.9 million, or 91.2% of its £500 million cap. Less than £44.1 million of the buyback pool was left before any trades this week. On Wednesday, shares were trading 13.5% higher than the bank’s average repurchase price.
At 510.2p, the stated balance is enough for about 8.6 million shares, just 0.06% of Barclays’ total stock. The bank already picked up 101.4 million shares, or about 0.75%. Barclays cancels the shares it buys. Buying earlier at lower prices did more to cut the share count for every pound spent. Now, the bank has less capacity to keep buying steadily.
Barclays is sticking with a big capital return. The bank targets over £15 billion in dividends and buybacks for 2026 to 2028. That’s over 21% of its market cap as of Wednesday, not counting any moves in the share price. How much stock gets bought back depends on the timing and price of each quarterly buyback.
LSEG data put Barclays’ median 12-month analyst target at 570p, which is 11.4% over Tuesday’s close. The latest calls come in at three “buy”, 13 “outperform”, and three “hold”. No analysts rate the stock “sell”. Barclays is up 53% over the last year. That climb means the gap to median target has shrunk, with attention now on how the bank executes on its capital plan. Investors Chronicle
Barclays posted a 13.5% first-quarter return on tangible equity and income of £8.2 billion. CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said the bank saw “double-digit returns in all our businesses” in the quarter. The targets stay at above 12% for 2026 and above 14% for 2028. Investegate
Barclays shares jumped 3.9% Monday, while NatWest was up 4% and Standard Chartered picked up 1.3%. The moves came after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would resign. Morningstar strategist Michael Field said a win by Labour’s Andy Burnham “would likely improve market perception”. Reuters
Bank of England rate bets are mixed. Traders still price in at least one quarter-point hike before year-end, though Alan Taylor, a policymaker, is calling for an “extended hold”. Higher rates may help bank lending margins but also mean more strain on borrowers. FTSE 100 was little changed early Wednesday. Reuters
Barclays could face less cash for future buybacks if credit losses or weaker investment-bank revenue continue. The bank set aside £228 million in the first quarter for collapsed lender Market Financial Solutions. Barclays announced a £500 million buyback, short of the £614 million analysts were looking for. Investment-bank growth fell behind big U.S. rivals in both trading and advisory fees.
Barclays’ next results come out July 28. The bank has said it will announce share buybacks each quarter, so traders are watching to see if that nearly used-up authorization gets replaced with a new one.
