Australia's Bank of Queensland hits 2-1/2-year low, analysts bearish

Bank of Queensland

21/04/2023 02:44

** Shares of Bank of Queensland  BOQ.AX  drop as much as 5%
to A$6.04, their lowest since Nov. 5, 2020
    ** Morgan Stanley downgrades BOQ to "underweight" from
"equal-weight", price target to A$6.00 from A$6.70 
    ** BOQ, at its results presentation, announced a "material
productivity initiative" aimed at cutting costs, among others
    ** "We think inflation, ongoing investment in
transformation, and duplicated retail bank system costs will
make it difficult for BOQ to lower the cost base before FY25" -
MS analysts 
    ** MS and UBS flag increasing competition weighing on BOQ's
margins
    ** UBS, which is "sell" rated on BOQ, also expects consensus
EPS forecast downgrades to ensue 
    ** BOQ shares record worst intraday pct drop since March 14
    ** As of last close, shares down 7.8% YTD

 (Reporting by Harshita Swaminathan)
 ((Harshita.Swaminathan@thomsonreuters.com))