BUZZ-Smiths: MS cautious on commodity-exposed John Crane unit

** British engineering conglomerate Smiths Group down c.2 pct & biggest loser on Stoxx 600 Industrial Goods &Services after Morgan Stanley sounds a warning bellabout co's commodity-exposed John Crane unit

** MS cuts stock to "underweight" from "equal weight" &slashes TP to 890p from 1080p

** 7 of 18 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, 5"hold" and 6 "sell" or lower; their median PT is 1055p

** Market has been too generous with its expectations fromJohn Crane in 2016-17 & co's biggest division not immune to thesevere margin down cycle being priced in at oil & gas industrypeers, MS says

** Engineers serving commodity cos in a fix as oil firmsacross the globe continue to slash expenditure & put projects onhold due to drastic fall in crude oil prices

** Unsurprisingly, Smiths' stock down 10 pct YTD

** John Crane unit, whose clients include BP Plc andChevron Corp, makes mechanical seals, seal supportsystems, engineered bearings, power transmission couplings andspecialised filtration systems (RM: esha.vaish.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

BP

Smiths Group