Top of the Street: Standard Life, Aberdeen Group, BPER and food retailers

Aegon

15/05/2026 14:00

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

** JP Morgan double upgrades British pension savings group Standard Life SDLF.L to "overweight" from "underweight," seeing the deal to buy Aegon's UK arm as very positive

** Citigroup upgrades British money manager Aberdeen ABDN.L to "buy" from "neutral" as it sees strong upside potential for investors, driven by possible gains beyond current expectations, re-rating opportunities in key businesses and attractive optionality

** UBS cuts BPER Banca EMII.MI to "neutral" from "buy" as it sees limited upside potential in Italy's fifth-largest bank after a strong rally in the past months

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** Bernstein initiates coverage of six European food retailers, including UK-based Marks & Spencer MKS.L and Sweden's Axfood AXFO.ST, noting that the companies must become "hot niche" drivers or transform to deliver strong returns

(*Analyst rankings from Thomson Reuters StarMine. The scale is from 1-star to 5-star with 5 being the best. Analysts are ranked on earnings accuracy as well as relative performance of recommendations over trailing 12-month & 24-month periods.)

 (Reporting by Paolo Laudani and Boleslaw Lasocki)

 ((Paolo.laudani@thomsonreuters.com))