Barclays Sets New Midterm Targets Alongside Profit Beat — Update

By Elena Vardon

Barclays issued more ambitious targets for the period through 2028 as it reported quarterly results that surpassed market expectations.

The British bank aims to reach a return on tangible equity--a key profitability measure--of more than 14% in 2028, it said Tuesday. That marks a step up from its target of greater than 12% this year and the 11.3% return it reported for last year.

"Our aim is to secure sustainably higher returns through to 2028 and beyond," Chief Executive Officer C. S. Venkatakrishnan said. The new goals build on a turnaround plan laid out in early 2024 to revitalize the group by cutting costs, shrinking the share of its capital-consuming investment bank and growing steadier businesses such as its domestic retail bank.

Higher profits, which will be supported by growth in its top-line and about 2 billion pounds ($2.74 billion) in efficiency savings, will allow the lender to hand at least 15 billion pounds in capital to shareholders over the period, it said.

Barclays expects its revenue to grow more than 5% each year and guided for total income to come in at 31 billion pounds in 2026, up from its previous view of 30 billion pounds and the 29.1 billion pounds it reported for 2025. This will be underpinned by lending growth across all of its divisions and by the continued tailwind provided by the structural hedges it has in place to smooth over the impact of interest-rate cuts by the Bank of England.

The London-listed group updated its guidance as it published better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. It also launched a 1 billion-pound share buyback program and declared a final dividend of 5.6 pence, taking the full-year payout to 8.6 pence.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, Barclays posted a 12% rise in pretax profit to 1.86 billion pounds, on revenue that edged up 2% to 7.08 billion pounds. Both figures results beat company-compiled consensus estimates. Weaker performances at its U.K. retail and private banking arms were offset by growth at its U.S. consumer division and strong fixed income and equity trading.

Shares rose as much as 2.6% in European morning trade following what analysts described as solid results and ambitious targets, before paring some of the gains. "We believe that the group's plan is achievable in the current economic environment," analysts at J.P.Morgan Cazenove said.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2026 05:52 ET (10:52 GMT)