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Barclays' First-half Profit Climbs on Strong Investment Banking Performance

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Barclays' First-half Profit Climbs on Strong Investment Banking Performance

Barclays (BARC.L) on Tuesday unveiled a new stock repurchase plan of up to 1 billion pounds sterling as it reported higher first-half profit and revenue, driven primarily by strong growth in its investment banking business.

The British lender's attributable profit after tax for the six months ended June 30 rose to 4.19 billion pounds from 3.52 billion pounds a year earlier, while total income jumped to 16.50 billion pounds from 14.90 billion pounds.

Total income at Barclays Investment Bank jumped 11% year over year to 7.99 billion pounds. Barclays UK posted an 8% increase in income to 4.52 billion pounds, while Barclays US Consumer Bank recorded a 26% jump to 2.12 billion pounds.

"We continued deploying balance sheet in the UK, with year-on-year loan growth of 5%, and the Investment Bank performed well in a favourable environment, with a RoTE of 16.0%," Chief Executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan said.

"Our performance supports distributions of [2.3 billion pounds] for the first half of 2026, up 61% year-on-year," Venkatakrishnan added. This includes the 1 billion-pound stock repurchase program, which is expected to commence in the third quarter, and an 800 million-pound dividend. The first-half dividend was raised to 0.059 pound per share from the 0.03 pound per share paid last year.

The bank also slightly increased its total income target for 2026 to 31.5 billion pounds from 31 billion pounds, while setting a target of over 5% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2028.

The stock was down nearly 5% in early morning trading in London.

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