Lloyds Banking Group PLC on Wednesday backed its annual outlook after third-quarter profit beat market expectations, despite weakening from a year ago.
Lloyds closes strong third quarter
"The group delivered a robust financial performance in the third quarter of 2024, with growth in income alongside continued cost discipline and strong asset quality. Our performance allows us confidently to reaffirm our 2024 guidance," commented Chief Executive Charlie Nunn.
In response, shares rose 1.9% to 63.19 pence each in London on Wednesday, outperforming the wider FTSE 100 index, which was up 0.2%.
The Edinburgh-based lender said pretax profit declined 1.9% to GBP1.82 billion in the three months to September from GBP1.86 billion a year prior, beating a company-compiled consensus of GBP1.62 billion.
This was driven by lower net interest income and higher operating expenses, partly offset by a lower impairment charge, the bank said.
Net income fell
Net income fell 3.7% to GBP4.35 billion from GBP4.51 billion, as a 6.2% fall in underlying net interest income to GBP3.23 billion from GBP3.44 billion hurt its bottom line. Both figures narrowly beat consensus forecasts of GBP4.29 billion and GBP3.21 billion respectively.
For the full-year, Lloyds still expects a banking net interest margin "of greater than 290 basis points". For the third-quarter, the banking NIM fell 13 basis points on-year to 2.95% from 3.08%. According to RBC Capital Markets, NIM had been forecast to decline to 2.93%.
