Barclays share price surges as bank lifts dividend

Barclays’ (LON:BARC) share price has surged in London this Thursday, with investors reacting positively to the lender’s move to lift its payout to shareholders. The announcement came in the group’s interims, which continue the banking reporting season, with StanChart (LON:STAN) having updated the market on its interim performance earlier this morning.As of 09:02 BST, Barclays’ share price had added 3.09 percent to 158.78p, outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.08 percent lower at 7,580.82 points. The group’s shares have given up more than 17 percent of their value over the past year, as compared with less than a one-percent fall in the FootsieBarclays posts resultsBarclays announced in a statement this morning that its profit before tax had climbed to £3 billion in the first half of the year, up from £1.7 billion in the prior-year period. Stripping litigation and conduct charges, however, the group’s profit fell to £3.1 billion from £3.7 billion a year ago when the lender was hit by a settlement with the US over mis-sold mortgage-backed securities.Barclays, however, revealed a rise in its Common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio to 13.4 percent, compared with 13.2 percent in December last year, and lifted its half-year dividend to 3.0p per share.“This was another resilient quarter of performance,” Barclays’ chief executive Jes Staley commented in the statement, adding that the lender’s “progressive capital returns policy, and intention to supplement the ordinary dividend with additional cash returns, including share buybacks when appropriate, remains unchanged”.Analysts on lenderShore Capital reaffirmed the FTSE 100 lender as a ‘buy’ today, without specifying a target on the Barclays share price. According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip group currently has a consensus ‘buy’ rating and an average valuation of 210.86p.