The Legal & General (LSE:LGEN) share price has enjoyed a decent run so far in 2025. The financial insurance giant has seen its market-cap climb by 10% since January, with impressive dividends continuing to flow into shareholders’ pockets. Of course, past performance is a poor indicator of future results.
So what are the expert analysts projecting for the Legal & General share price moving forward? And as its already substantial 8.4% dividend yield continues to grow?
Here’s what the experts are saying
Earlier in May, the investment analyst team at Barclays reaffirmed its Buy rating for Legal & General shares, with a price target of 320p. Compared to where the stock’s trading today, that suggests a 26.5% potential capital gain waiting on the horizon.
Digging deeper, this bullish projection’s being driven by a number of factors. But the three seemingly biggest factors are:
- The simplification of its business model through division mergers and disposal of non-core assets to streamline and improve operational profitability.
- The launch of a new £5bn share buyback programme to be completed over the next three years.
- The impressive resurgence of demand for annuity products among retirement customers while simultaneously improving the performance of its asset management segments.
Barclays isn’t the only institution citing these promising traits. The teams at JPMorgan Chase and Berenberg bank have similarly highlighted them in their own projections. Yet it seems these experts are taking a more conservative approach by placing share price targets at 295p and 265p respectively.
Despite the broad range of forecasts, most analysts are confident that the Legal & General share price will steadily rise over the next 12 months. And it’s a seemingly similar conclusion when looking at the long-term dividend forecast as well.
| Fiscal Year | Dividend Forecast | Forward Yield |
| 2025 | 21.79p | 8.6% |
| 2026 | 22.22p | 8.8% |
| 2027 | 22.93p | 9.1% |
| 2028 | 23.63p | 9.3% |
| 2029 | 24.33p | 9.6% |
What could go wrong?
Despite the bullish sentiment, even the optimistic projections from Barclays have their caveats. In particular, with vast quantities of assets under management, Legal & General’s highly sensitive to interest rates, inflation, and general market volatility. Even if the underlying investments perform well, if market sentiment suffers, customer funds could quickly start flowing back out of the business.
This situation’s also not helped by the relative underperformance of the group’s investment management segment in recent years. And with competition heating up, particularly from the likes of Aviva and Phoenix Group Holdings, recapturing withdrawn customer funds could prove far more challenging in the future.
The bottom line
All things considered, the high yield of Legal & General shares makes for an attractive income opportunity. And with projections suggesting its share price could also rise, this suggests there’s something here for growth investors as well.
However, the long-term sustainability of shareholder payouts appears to be largely dependent on factors that are largely out of management’s control. That’s not something I’m tempted to add to my portfolio. But for investors comfortable with taking on macroeconomic risk, Legal & General shares could be worth a closer look.
