BUZZ-Top of the Street: Adidas, UK REITs, Antofagasta, Konecranes

Thu, 15th Mar 2018 10:58

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe'stop-ranked* analysts:

** Telsey Advisory Group raises Adidas to"outperform" on well-positioned global brands, US industrystabilisation, achievable operating margin target and attractivevaluation

** 5-star ranked Goldman Sachs cuts Land Securitiesto "sell", expects limited activity from co as it waits for acorrection in London office markets; says it is likely to haveto wait some time, with no guarantee it will be able to investsufficiently material amount

** Credit Suisse double downgrades Intu Propertiesto "underperform", says Hammerson's recent takeoverapproach appears attractive for the co, but deterioration in UKretail since the deal was announced poses a risk to thetransaction

** Canaccord Genuity ups Antofagasta to "buy", saysco's 20% total return profile now ranks second most attractiveof the broker's UK copper coverage

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** Barclays initiates coverage of major UK banks, expects UKnet interest margins to beat a pessimistic consensus with itsearnings estimates 10% ahead of the street despite challengesrebuilding statutory profitability and dealing with Brexit

** Barclays starts Lloyds Banking Group with"overweight" as its "top pick", expects co to beat consensus onnet interest margin

** On Royal Bank Of Scotland, Barclays initiateswith "overweight", sees normalisation by 2020 after a resolutionof legacy issues, which should enable RBS to generate returnsahead of cost of capital, resume dividends and start to ease theexit of the UK govt as a shareholder

** Barclays starts Standard Chartered with"underweight", sees good progress but the co's valuation is"discounting a much faster recovery in earnings than isrealistic"

** For HSBC Holdings, Barclays starts with "equalweight", says it is encouraged by the co's revenue recovery, butvaluation looks expensive

** Goldman Sachs starts Konecranes with "buy",sees accelerating topline on late-cycle industrial capex andbetter service growth after MHPS acquisition, expects EBITA togrow 3x as fast as the sector over the next 3 yrs

(*Analyst rankings from Thomson Reuters StarMine. Scale is from1-star to 5-star with 5 being best. Analysts ranked on earningsaccuracy as well as relative performance of recommendations overtrailing 12-month & 24-month periods.)