HSBC (LSE: HSBA) shares are a phenomenon. They’re up 75% in the last 12 months, and a stunning 295% over five years. The Asia-focused FTSE 100 bank has served up dividends throughout, boosting the total return. The forecast yield today is 4.2%.
That’s the type of return investors expect from a red-hot US technology stock. If Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, grew like that over the next five years, investors would say it had lived up to the hype.
This shows how investors underestimate the long-term wealth-building power of UK blue-chip shares. We’ve been so distracted by the mega-cap Magnificent Seven we risk ignoring what’s happening right under our noses.
Here’s why the FTSE 100 bank has been flying
With SpaceX shares crashing by more than half following the group’s attention-grabbing IPO on 12 June, it’s a timely reminder of the FTSE 100’s power. The index is within a whisker of breaking through the 11,000 mark for the first time.
SpaceX and HSBC could hardly be more different. SpaceX posted a $5bn loss last year, followed by another $4bn loss in the first quarter of 2026, as its AI business continues to burn cash. We’ll know how Q2 went this evening (4 August), when latest results land.
Making money isn’t a problem for HSBC, as this table of annual profits shows.
- 2025 – $29.9bn
- 2024 – $32.3bn
- 2023 – $30.4bn
- 2022 – $17.5bn
- 2021 – $18.9bn
This morning, HSBC published its second-quarter results, and they suggest full-year 2026 is shaping up pretty well too. Underlying profit before tax rose 13% to $10.3bn, while underlying revenue climbed 7% to $19bn, beating forecasts of $18.6bn.
The balance sheet remains solid. Its CET1 capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, came in at 14.1%, comfortably within the bank’s target range of 14% to 14.5%.
And here’s why the stock fell today
There was more good news, with the board unveiling a new share buyback programme worth up to $1bn. HSBC paused its buyback programme last October to fund its $14bn purchase of the remaining stake in Hang Seng Bank. Before the pause, quarterly buybacks were running at $3bn, so today’s is notably lower. The board also declared a 10-cent interim dividend, which is the same as last year.
That partly explains why HSBC’s shares fell 1.25% today. The main culprit was a $400m increase in expected credit losses to $2.4bn, reflecting concerns over Hong Kong commercial property, the bank’s exposure to UK fraud, and the Iran conflict.
After such a brilliant run, HSBC has to pull out all the stops to impress investors. The trailing price-to-earnings ratio has climbed to 17.7, so the shares are starting to look fully valued.
I still think HSBC is a terrific long-term holding. I bought the shares in both May and June and plan to hang on to them for years, hopefully decades. But after such an exceptional run, I wouldn’t be surprised if the excitement cooled for a while. I still think it’s worth considering, provided investors take the long view.
Should you invest £5,000 in HSBC Holdings right now?
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Harvey Jones owns shares in HSBC.
This story originally appeared on Motley Fool
