Top of the Street: Sanofi, Close Brothers, Richemont, Assa Abloy, Munich RE
16/01/2026 14:07
A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts: ** UBS downgrades French drugmaker Sanofi SASY.PA to "neutral" from "buy," citing disappointing trial data and a significant strategic risk from weak pipeline "replacement power" ** RBC Capital Markets ups British lender Close Brothers CBRO.L to "outperform" from "sector perform," believing the bank still has meaningful cost efficiencies to extract, not fully reflected in consensus expectations ** BofA cuts Swiss luxury goods group Richemont CFR.S to "neutral" from "buy," arguing that its positive transformation story is now priced in and "limits share price upside from here" INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS ** J.P.Morgan reinstates coverage of Swedish lockmaker Assa Abloy ASSAb.ST with "overweight" on expectations that organic growth will accelerate, supported by stronger end-markets and margin gains ** Kepler Cheuvreux initiates Munich RE MUVGn.DE with "buy," saying the reinsurer is well placed as the market normalises, and helped by tight pricing, strong capital and a diversified earnings engine that lets it avoid chasing volumes (*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 Elviira Luoma and Mateusz Rabiega) ((Elviira.luoma@thomsonreuters.com))