Ativo Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 249,184 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $678,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Lloyds Banking Group by 14.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 19,280,034 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $60,154,000 after acquiring an additional 2,472,263 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 58.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,659,629 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $20,778,000 after purchasing an additional 2,456,914 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 0.4% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,894,063 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $15,269,000 after purchasing an additional 18,494 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 37.4% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 3,416,484 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $10,659,000 after purchasing an additional 929,478 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bard Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Lloyds Banking Group by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Bard Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,426,305 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,600,000 after purchasing an additional 13,500 shares in the last quarter. 2.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lloyds Banking Group stock opened at $3.37 on Friday. Lloyds Banking Group plc has a 52-week low of $2.25 and a 52-week high of $3.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.63 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.93.

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $9.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.76 billion. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 9.81% and a net margin of 10.89%. Research analysts expect that Lloyds Banking Group plc will post 0.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Separately, Morgan Stanley downgraded Lloyds Banking Group from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $2.75.

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Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers.

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