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COMMENT
The UK's Strangest Blue Chip

By David Kuo (TMFDragon)
December 13, 2004

The stock market is said to be highly efficient. After all, thousands of well-informed investors are constantly scouring the market for under and over-valued shares to buy and sell. Consequently, inconsistencies in the stock market are rare as canny investors quickly correct any anomalies that occur.

Occasionally, unusual situations can arise which prompt questions to be asked of the market's efficiency.

The abnormally high-yielding Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY) is one such case that has intrigued some investors. Shares in Britain's fifth-largest bank currently stand on a prospective yield of 8%, which is considerably higher than other banks, and more than twice the market average. Alliance & Leicester (LSE: AL.), for example, is the next highest-yielding bank on 5.9%, and most banks currently yield around 4.5%.

Normally, excessively high-yielding shares can be an indication that a company may be in trouble. This has been suggested of Lloyds TSB, and some have questioned whether its lofty dividend yield is sustainable.

Interestingly, Lloyds TSB can afford to pay out more of its profits as dividends because it needs less money to fund growth. In fact, the bank has very modest growth ambitions. Instead it prefers to focus on improving efficiency by cutting costs, and this is expected to drive profit growth. Today, the bank said trading in the current year is broadly in line with forecasts, and added that it expects revenues to grow faster than costs.

As a result of its modest expansion plans, Lloyds TSB is comfortable with paying out a greater proportion of its profits as dividends. It allocates half of its pre-tax profits to dividends. This is much higher than say, HSBC (LSE: HSBA), which pays out a third of its profits as dividends. Elsewhere, fast-growing Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) allocates only a quarter of its profits to dividends.

Investors should bear in mind that returns from investing in shares comprises of two main components, both of which are vitally important. Firstly, there is capital appreciation, which comes from share price growth, and secondly, there are dividends. It seems like long-term returns from Lloyds TSB will be similar to the other major UK banks. But, in Lloyds TSB's case it will probably consist of a higher dividend rate and lower actual share price growth.