A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe’s top-ranked* analysts:
** “Spectrum bonanza”: believing SES could free up more spectrum for 5G than consensus expects, 5-star ranked Exane BNP analyst double upgrades stock to “outperform”
Also sees SES’ US C-band rights “particularly valuable and severely undervalued”
** Shares of Sky, target of bidding war between Comcast and Fox, are “reaching a limit,” says star broker Macquarie (d/g to “neutral”) as it sees current share price aligned with likely winning bid
** Top-ranked Goldman Sachs cuts ITV to “neutral,” seeing near-term risk/reward more balanced following recent outperformance
** Goldman Sachs ups Maersk to buy as it sees significant self-help potential, believing management will return Maersk Line to industry-leading margin levels
** Roche: Berenberg is “back to buy” as it is “more confident on growth”
** “We like the story but what are you paying for?” asks top-ranked UBS, cutting Kingspan to “sell” as it sees re-rating now overdone
** According to some traders, Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgrades Legrand to “buy”
INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS
** Deutsche Bank resumes coverage of Axa with “hold”, saying acquisition of XL should look better with hindsight than near-term market reaction suggests, Axa having de-rated by 10% vs peers since acquisition
** Seeing bank’s Cumulus credit card as continuing success story, Credit Suisse initiates Cembra coverage at “outperform,” putting assumption of “extraordinary” dividends already in 2018 as second pillar for its case
** Seeing recent 15% de-rating at K+S as an opportunity, Berenberg initiates coverage with “hold,” pointing to few catalysts for re-rating