Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) shares have performed really well recently. Over the last year, they’ve climbed from 47p to 72p – a gain of 53%.
Looking ahead, the shares could continue to deliver positive returns for investors. However, over the next five years, I think there will be plenty of UK stocks that deliver higher returns.
Strong momentum
Lloyds shares have several things going for them right now (so they could still be worth considering).
For starters, profits are expected to rise in the years ahead. For 2025 and 2026, City analysts are expecting earnings per share of 7.1p and 9.1p, respectively, versus 6.3p for 2024.
Secondly, the dividend is growing. Recently, Lloyds declared total dividends of 3.17p for 2024 – an increase of 15% year on year. That payout translates to a yield of about 4.4% at the current share price. That’s a higher yield than most savings accounts are offering.
Third, the company is buying back its own shares. Recently, the bank announced a £1.7bn buyback (which should help to boost earnings per share).
Finally, the shares are in a strong uptrend. And trends can last for a while.
However, despite all of the above, I’m not convinced that Lloyds shares can deliver big returns over the next five years. The main reason for this is that the bank’s fortunes are closely tied to the strength of the UK economy.
I just don’t see the UK economy firing over the next five years (it could even be quite weak). And I think a lack of economic growth may hold Lloyds shares back.
Outperformance potential
One UK stock that I believe is likely to outperform Lloyds over the next five is Wise (LSE: WISE). It’s a leading financial technology (FinTech) company that specialises in international money transfers.
This company operates globally (70+ countries worldwide) today, so it’s not dependent on the UK economy like Lloyds is. That’s one reason I see outperformance potential here.
Another reason is that Wise is far more scalable than Lloyds. Lloyds’ growth potential is quite limited due to the fact that it’s a UK-focused bank. With Wise, however, the growth potential is essentially limitless. That’s because it’s a global company with the ability to continually roll out new products and services for its customers.
One other factor that could potentially help this stock outperform Lloyds is the global shift away from traditional banking services (like Lloyds offers) towards fintech services such as electronic payments and mobile payments. Given this shift, Wise could potentially even capture market share from Lloyds (its international payments services are very uncompetitive today).
Now, competition from other fintech companies could result in my prediction missing the mark. As could valuation compression (the company’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is about 28 today, which is quite high).
Taking a five-year view, however, I’m quite optimistic about the stock’s prospects. I think this fintech stock is worth considering today.
