Barclays Earnings: Investment Bank Beats Expectations

We raise our fair value estimate for Barclays to GBX 306 per share from GBX 290 after the bank reported a strong quarter in its investment bank and lifted its guidance for net interest income. The bank reported profits before impairments of GBP 3.362 billion, 11% ahead of company-collected consensus estimates. The strong performance was owed to 4% better-than-expected total income generation, with the investment bank carrying the baton. Importantly, much of the good performance in the investment bank came from more stable income streams such as financing and the international corporate bank, up 19% and 34% year over year, respectively.