Top of the Street: Rio Tinto, Gecina, British Land, Sanofi, UBS

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

05/12/2023 13:31

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's
top-ranked* analysts:
    
    ** Exane BNP Paribas upgrades Rio Tinto  RIO.L  to
"outperform" from "neutral" citing the iron ore producer's
attractive relative valuation 
    ** Goldman Sachs cuts Gecina  GFCP.PA  to "neutral" from
"buy" as low appetite for office investment could precipitate
further value declines
    ** The same brokerage raises British Land  BLND.L  to
"neutral" from "sell" as it becomes more positive on its retail
exposure
    ** J.P.Morgan downgrades UCB  UCB.BR  to "underweight" from
"neutral" saying the Belgium-based pharma company's pipeline is
either high risk, or of more limited commercial potential  
    ** It also cuts Sanofi  SASY.PA  to "neutral" from
"overweight" as consensus already reflects the French
drugmaker's 2024 drug launches, seeing limited chance for shares
re-rating in the next 12-18 months
        ** BofA Securities downgrades UBS  UBSG.S  to "neutral"
from "buy" expecting operating costs from the Credit Suisse
merger to weigh on the Swiss bank's EPS in the short-term

    INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS
    ** J.P.Morgan initiates coverage of Carl Zeiss Meditec
 AFXG.DE  with "underweight" as its sees the German medical
technology firm's slowing earnings and increasing costs as
challenge to margins
        ** BMO starts coverage of Adyen  ADYEN.AS  with
"outperform" saying the digital payments company's medium-term
targets are credible, and expects its revenue growth
re-acceleration to prove enduring

(*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 Marta Frąckowiak and Alessandro Parodi)
 ((marta.frackowiak@thomsonreuters.com;
alessandro.parodi@thomsonreuters.com))