The shares of Barclays (LSE: BARC) (NYSE: BCS.US) climbed 8p to 274p during early trade this morning today after the bank said its third-quarter adjusted profits had dropped by 26%.
The FTSE 100 member said adjusted profits before tax had fallen from £1,865m to £1,385m during July, August and September. Adjusted pre-tax profits for the first nine months of 2013 fell 20% to £4,976m.
The bank’s third-quarter performance was affected mostly by investment-banking profits crashing 53% to £463m. Profits from the group’s UK retail-banking operation and Barclaycard were sustained, while improvements were recorded within the African and corporate-banking divisions.
Net tangible asset value was 323p per share at the end of September and a 1p per share dividend was declared for the quarter.
Anthony Jenkins, the chief executive of Barclays, said:
“These results demonstrate the underlying strength of the Group, and the benefits of diversity, shown in the good progress made by several of our businesses in the quarter and year to date.“
“All of our businesses are well positioned to take advantage of improvements in the global macro environment, as we manage the Group through a slow and gradual economic recovery.“
Mr Jenkins also said his “executive team know [they] must push harder in the final quarter and into 2014.“
Prior to today, City experts were predicting Barclays would produce earnings at 30p per share during 2014 that could perhaps fund a 12p per share dividend.
Following this morning’s price reaction, those projections support a potential 2014 P/E of 9 and a possible yield of 4.3%.
