Lloyds Banking Group [LSE: LLOY] Share Price Hovers Around £94.88 After Cancelling 32.3mn Shares in Buyback Program

Lloyds Banking Group [LSE: LLOY] repurchased and cancelled 32,331,351 of its ordinary shares on May 12, 2026, as part of the bank’s ongoing share buyback programme, with the trades executed through Goldman Sachs International acting as broker.

The shares were bought at prices ranging between 93.92 pence and 95.30 pence per share, with a volume-weighted average price of 94.5432 pence, representing a slight discount to recent trading levels as the stock had been hovering around the 98-100 pence range in the days immediately preceding the transaction.

By cancelling the repurchased shares, Lloyds will permanently reduce the number of ordinary shares in circulation, a move designed to enhance earnings per share, improve capital efficiency, and concentrate existing shareholders’ ownership stake in the bank without any cash outlay required from them.

The buyback was conducted under instructions originally issued by the bank on January 29, 2026, and announced publicly the following day, with the programme representing a pre-planned and pre-approved capital return mechanism rather than an opportunistic market intervention.

The May 12 tranche follows a consistent cadence of repurchases throughout the spring, with Lloyds having cancelled 33.7 million shares on May 5 at a volume-weighted average price of 94.76 pence, 20 million shares on May 8 at 99.35 pence, and 16.6 million shares on May 11 at 98.78 pence, illustrating the regularity and scale of the programme across consecutive trading days.

A full breakdown of the individual trades executed by Goldman Sachs International on behalf of Lloyds is publicly available via the London Stock Exchange, in full compliance with Article 5(1)(b) of the Market Abuse Regulation, which requires detailed disclosure of each transaction as part of the bank’s commitment to regulatory transparency.

The most recent analyst rating on Lloyds stock is a Buy with a price target of 115 pence, implying meaningful upside from the approximately 94 to 95 pence range at which Tuesday’s buyback was transacted, and reflecting analyst confidence in the bank’s improving capital position and earnings trajectory.

TipRanks’ AI analyst tool Spark rates LLOY as Neutral, noting that while the bank’s strong earnings outlook and capital return strategy are positive signals, weaker underlying financial quality indicators including elevated leverage and two consecutive years of negative free cash flow temper the overall assessment.

Lloyds is the UK’s largest retail bank by customer numbers, operating through its Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland brands across retail and commercial banking, insurance, and wealth management, with the ongoing buyback programme serving as a key pillar of its 2026 capital allocation strategy alongside its regular dividend payments.