Alexandra PankratyevaBarclays defines itself as a banking company “creating opportunities to rise”. It invests, moves, lends and protect money for clients worldwide. Digging deeper into the core – i.e. exploring the company’s share price history – we’ll get a clearer picture of Barclays stock performance today and tomorrow.
What is Barclays?
Barclays Bank history goes back to 1690, when Thomas Gould established the goldsmith business in London. The company got its current name in 1736 and took its place on the banking market of London in 1896, when 20 banking firms joined together to form Barclays and Co.
As times goes by, Barclays grew to transform into a nationwide bank and executed several large acquisitions, including Woolwich in 2000 and ING Direct UK in 2012. Barclays bank operates through several major business divisions, including Barclays UK, Barclays International, Barclays Core and others.
In 2017, Barclays was ranked 6th among the largest banks in Europe with almost 1.28 trillion US dollars under management. In 2018, the company became one of the top ten British brands.
The development of Barclays Bank’s total asset value shows a tendency to decrease, from 1.5 trillion GBP in 2012 to 1.15 trillion pounds in 2017. Other British banks were affected in a similar way. Despite the decrease, Barclays Bank retains its second place in terms of assets after HSBC Holdings.
Barclays SWOT analysis
The main purpose of SWOT analysis is usually to build strategies a company can use to protect its strengths and eradicate its weaknesses, to exploit attractive opportunities and counter threats. Besides, all the company’s key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats mentioned below can help us identify attractive investment opportunities for traders, making BARC shares the instrument of your choice.
Strengths:
Diversified business. Different units, including retail banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management and credit cards contribute to overall growth. Expertise in entering new markets help Barclays to conquer new territories.
Successful mergers and acquisitions. Barclays integrated a number of technology companies to streamline its operations and create a trusted supply chain.
Extensive international network. Good brand visibility. Barclays brand value was estimated to be $6.28 billion in the UK alone.
Strong marketing and advertising. First bank to launch website. It happened in 1995. Sponsor or major international sporting events – the Premier League football tournament.
Global presence. Operates in more than 50 countries and attracts over 48 million customers worldwide.
Automation contributes to Barclays products consistently high quality, enabling the company to scale up its operations.
Strong free cash flow and good returns on capital expenditure. Cash flows provide the company with resources for new projects. Barclays products are relatively successful – generate good returns and new revenue streams.
Skilled workforce. Investing huge resources in training and education, Barclays grows the team of highly skilled professionals, motivated to achieve more.
Weaknesses:
Gaps in product range. Lack of choice within the company's product offering can provide competitors with a foothold in the market.
Cases affecting the brand image. Controversies like funding of government in Zimbabwe, involement with South Africa under apartheid, accusations of money laundering may have a negative impact on the brand's reputation.
Failures to integrate firms with different cultures. Even though Barclays has a track-record of successful acquisitions of smaller companies, there have been some failures integrating firms with different work culture.
Weak product demand forecasting. Barclays is considered not very good at forecasting product demand, which increases the rate of missed opportunities, compared to the company's competitors.
Opportunities:
Emerging economies. Expansion and growth in emerging markets represent a huge opportunity for Barclays. Adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement gave Barclays a chance to enter new markets.
Online banking. A huge and relatively untapped area of online banking provides access to new customers. Over the past several years Barclays invested a huge amount of money into the online platform. It helped to open new sales channel.
New customers looking for investment options. Increase in customer spending forms the opportunity for Barclays to attract new customers and strengthen its market share.
Threats:
No regular supply of innovative products. Although the company has developed many new products, their supply is not regular, which leads to drastic sales swings. It poses a real threat within a highly competitive market environment.
Switching to online channel. Gradually changing customer buying preferences towards online channel may threaten the existing physical infrastructure.
Currency fluctuations. Barclays operates in numerous countries, therefore, it is exposed to currency fluctuations, driven by volatile political climate in a number of places around the world.
Barclays share price history
BARC stock price history started with a primary listing of Barclays stocks on the London Stock Exchange. Barclays held its initial public offering 1 November 1953. Today it constitutes a part of the major FTSE indices, including the FTSE 100, FTSE 300 and FTSE Eurotop 100 index.
Barclays share history continued 19 September 1986, when the company was cross-listed on the US stock market – the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BCS.
For more than 60 years of Barclays share price performance, the bank’s stock has reached an all-time high of £790 on February 2007. Back then, Barclays stock had the most impressive rally from the mid-90s, which ended just shortly before the global financial crisis.
The company quickly reached its all-time low of £64 on March 2009. As of December 2018, the BARC stock price is fluctuating in a range of £130 and £330.
The latest Barclays share price as of 6 September 2019 is £140.
Barclays share price forecast
According to the latest Barclays stock analysis, the median estimate represents a 37% increase from the latest price. The consensus of 17 polled analysts rank BARC as a stock to buy. To make your own thoughtful investment decision regarding the Barclays shares, follow its live chart at Capital.com
