Top of the Street: Leonardo, Kingspan, Hermes, Bellway, Berkeley, WPP, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey

Kingspan

10/05/2024 14:13

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's
top-ranked* analysts:
    
    ** UBS cuts Irish insulation maker Kingspan  KSP.I  to
"neutral" from "buy", citing concerns over the recent
underperformance of the insulation division and limited M&A
opportunities
    ** UBS raises the defence and aerospace group
Leonardo LDOF.MI  to "buy" from "neutral", saying the market has
not priced in yet the company's Industrial Plan targets
    
    INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS
    ** Jefferies initiates Hermes HRMS.PA  with "buy" rating,
citing margin profile outperformance compared to its peers with
topline figures mainly driven by progress on brand expansion
    ** Deutsche Bank initiates the UK housebuilders
Bellway BWY.L  and Berkeley BKGH.L  with "buy" rating, saying
the companies are better placed in challenging markets than the
wider sector with their strong track records
    ** DB initiates British ad group WPP WPP.L  with "buy"
rating, expecting this year Tech marketing stabilization and
improvement in net sales
    ** DB initiates the UK housebuilder Persimmon PSN.L  with
"hold" rating, predicting lower sales rates and protracted
volume recovery, despite the company's attempts to rebuild the
outlet network
    ** DB initiates Taylor Wimpey TW.L  with "hold" rating,
expressing concerns about long-term cash generation, predicting
it to stay "notably lower" than in pre-Covid times
    
    
(*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 Amir Orusov, Marta Frąckowiak and Anastasiia
Kozlova)
 ((Amir.orusov@thomsonreuters.com
Marta.frackowiak@thomsonreuters.com;
Anastasiia.kozlova@thomsonreuters.com))