Citi downgrades Man Group on 'significant performance earnings risks'

(Sharecast News) - Citi downgraded Man Group on Wednesday to 'neutral' from 'buy' and slashed the price target to 185p from 265p on "significant performance earnings risks".

It noted the shares have fallen around 20% year-to-date, notably underperforming Citi's European Diversified Financials coverage up 5%.

"While we are constructive on the group's medium-term growth outlook, we are concerned that recent weak performance of key (high-margin) AHL strategies could continue, potentially resulting in both outflows but also weak performance fee generation," Citi said.

"Indeed, we do not expect key AHL strategies to generate performance fees until 2027, resulting in Citi estimates circa 20% below consensus over FY25-27."

Citi said the stock's valuation is not demanding and offers significant optionality to any recovery in performance, but with significant downside risk to consensus estimates, it sees "less pressing need for investors to own the shares now", hence the downgrade.

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