Top of the Street: AstraZeneca, chemicals, capital goods

Alstria Office REIT AG

07/12/2021 14:06

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from
Europe's top-ranked* analysts:
    
    ** Jefferies downgrades both U.S. and London-listed shares
of drugmaker AstraZeneca  AZN.L ,  AZN.O  to "hold" from "buy",
saying that though the company's impressive near-term revenue,
profit trajectory is more compelling than its European pharma
peers, it is set to decline to single-digit EPS growth beyond
2026  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2SS27O
    ** JPMorgan raises chemical producers BASF  BASFn.DE 
("overweight" vs "neutral"), Clariant  CLN.S , and Covestro
 1COV.DE  (both "neutral" vs "underweight"), citing their
attractive valuation after recent de-rating and underperformance
in 2021  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2SS0ZK
    ** The brokerage also cuts real estate firm Alstria Office
 AOXG.DE  from "overweight" to "neutral", saying Brookfield's
 BAMa.TO  bid captures the valuation upside  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2RV4JP
    
    INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS
    ** Bernstein initiates Dassault Systemes  DAST.PA ,
Schneider Electric  SCHN.PA  and Kion Group  KGX.DE  with
"market perform", Epiroc  EPIRa.ST  and Atlas Copco  ATCOA.ST 
with "underperform", stating that these firms' valuations are
higher than justified - some of them up to 20% - and prompt for
downside risk  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2SS2AD
    ** It starts Assa Abloy  ASSAb.ST , CNH Industrial  CNHI.N ,
Sandvik  SAND.ST , Hexagon  HEXAb.ST , Aveva  AVV.L  and ABB
 ABBN.S  with "outperform", seeing them as undervalued - some of
them up to 32% - while also praising their M&A strategies   
    ** "(Legrand's)  LEGD.PA  stock is almost perfectly valued
and expectations are reasonable," the brokerage says, initiating
the company with "market perform", but urges the CEO to find
ways to "positively surprise" the investors
    ** Bernstein starts Siemens  SIEGn.DE  with "underperform",
citing a need for "substantial reform" under the new CEO Roland
Busch
    
    
(*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 Olivier Cherfan and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
 ((olivier.cherfan@tr.com, aida.pelaez-fernandez@tr.com
mailto:aida.pelaez-fernandez@thomsonreuters.com))