Top of the Street: Orsted, Centrica, Societe Generale, BESI
09/05/2025 12:53
A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts: ** Berenberg cuts Swiss specialty nylon manufacturer EMS Chemie EMSN.S to "sell" from "hold" as it sees risk of a guidance cut during H1 results due to slowing business momentum ** Citigroup downgrades Denmark's Orsted ORSTED.CO to "sell" from "neutral" citing concerns about wind power developer selling operating cashflows to fund U.S. projects and cancelling value-creating projects such as Hornsea 4 ** RBC also cuts Danish medical equipment maker Coloplast COLOb.CO to "sector perform" from "outperform" citing uncertainty on CEO and strategy ** Kepler Cheuvreux downgrades British energy supplier Centrica CNA.L to "hold" from "buy" seeing no new positive catalysts post-AGM after strong performance ** UBS cuts Societe Generale SOGN.PA to "neutral" from "buy" as it sees the French bank's valuation as fair in the near term with an uncertain macro and political environment ** It also downgrades Wolters Kluwer WLSNc.AS to "neutral" from "buy" expecting organic growth to decelerate to 5% in 2026 ** UBS also cuts Belgian real estate investment trust Cofinimmo COFB.BR to "neutral" from "buy" to reflect all-share offer by Aedifica AOO.BR INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS ** J.P.Morgan starts Dutch BE Semiconductor Industries (BESI) BESI.AS with an "overweight" rating citing "substantial" revenue growth potential for the supplier of advanced packaging tools for chipmakers ** Jefferies resumes coverage of Playtech PTEC.L with "buy" rating as British gambling technology firm completed sale of Snaitech and will now return 1.8 billion euros to shareholders via a special dividend (*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 Tiago Brandão and Marta Frackowiak) ((tiago.Brandao@thomsonreuters.com; marta.frackowiak@thomsonreuters.com))