Buy Barclays for income

It’s been a long and bumpy road back for Barclays (BARC) in restructuring its operations and strengthening its balance sheet in the aftermath of the financial crisis. However, the banking giant has made leaps on both fronts during the past decade. Significantly, a step up in its common tier one capital ratio (CET1) – equity held over its risk-weighted assets – last year led management to guide towards reinstating its dividend for 2018 to historic levels of 6.5p. With the balance sheet now looking in decent shape and a further hike in the dividend forecast for 2019, we feel Barclays represents a good income play. What's more, as the only one of the UK's five big banks with shares trading at a discount to forecast net tangible assets, there could be re-rating potential further down the line if trading eventually picks up.