Formula that will produce a less that sign (<) followed by a value calculated in another cell?

     I am trying the figure out if there is a way to produce a value in a cell that reads out as a less-than sign (<) followed by a calculated value from another cell.

     As a basic example if A1=5 and I want B1 to read "<5" based on the value calculated in A1. I have tried things like =<A1, ="<"A1, and ="<A1" but they all produce the result "<A1" instead of showing the value from the referenced cell.

     Eventually I would like to use this in an IF function to show the calculated result if it is above a certain calculated limit (which will vary throughout the data being processed) and to otherwise show <(Calculated limit). However, that should be easy once I know the correct syntax.

Thank you!