Lloyds vs Barclays, side by side
Both sit on Britain's high street, but they are different animals. Lloyds is about as domestic as a big bank gets - UK mortgages, current accounts and business lending, which makes it a geared bet on the UK economy and interest rates. Barclays runs a similar UK retail bank plus a global investment bank, whose trading and deal-making income rises and falls with market activity.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on momentum and growth, and weakest on quality.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on growth and income, and weakest on quality.
The numbers, side by side
| Measure |  Lloyds |  Barclays |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £1.15 | £5.09 |
| Market cap: The company's total value on the stock market - share price times the number of shares. Big = 'large-cap', small = 'small-cap'. | £66.58B | £68.61B |
| P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 14.3 | 10.6 |
| Div yield: Dividend yield: the yearly dividend as a percentage of the share price - roughly the income you'd earn just from dividends. | 3.5% | 2.3% |
| Revenue growth | 12.3% | 15.6% |
| 1Y: How much the share price has moved over the past year. | +51% | +37% |
More measures
| Forward P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 9.4 | 7.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 26.4% | 27.9% |
| ROE | 11.3% | 10.1% |
| Beta: How bumpy the share price is versus the whole market. Above 1 swings more than the market; below 1 is calmer. It's about the ride, not whether it goes up or down. | 0.91 | 0.88 |
The bolder figure is simply the larger of the two - higher is not automatically good (a higher P/E means more expectation in the price; a higher beta means bigger swings).
How they differ
The two are close in size by market value. On our factor screen Lloyds currently screens higher on momentum, while Barclays screens higher on growth. Lloyds trades on the higher P/E (14.3 vs 10.6), so more expectation is already built into its price; and Lloyds currently yields more (3.5% vs 2.3%). Over the past year the share prices moved +51% (Lloyds) vs +37% (Barclays).
Descriptive only - how the two compare on today's data, never a verdict on either.
Lloyds, in one line
Britain's biggest purely domestic retail bank - a giant mortgage machine whose fortunes rise and fall with UK house prices and Bank of England rates.
Read the full Lloyds explainer →Barclays, in one line
Barclays is a major British bank that helps people manage their money, provides loans, and offers investment banking services to businesses globally.
Read the full Barclays explainer →What to weigh
If dividend income matters to you, the yields differ (3.5% Lloyds vs 2.3% Barclays). These are facts to understand, not a verdict - read each full explainer before deciding anything.
Common questions
Why do UK interest rates matter so much to both?
Banks earn much of their profit from the gap between what they pay savers and charge borrowers. That gap tends to widen when rates rise and compress when they fall - and for a domestic lender like Lloyds it is the single biggest driver.
What does the investment bank add for Barclays?
Another engine - fees from trading, underwriting and advising that do not depend on UK mortgages. It diversifies the income, but it also makes results lumpier and harder to predict quarter to quarter.