A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:
** Deutsche Bank cuts Swedish industrial group Boliden BOL.ST to "hold" from "buy", as recent news on Garpenberg mine developments point to a much longer and more material impact than anticipated
** Morgan Stanley upgrades French gas supplier Air Liquide AIRP.PA to "equal-weight" from "underweight" as a stable U.S. portfolio shields it from Middle East supply shocks
** It also raises German peer Evonik EVKn.DE to "overweight" from "equal-weight" on expectations of better pricing and higher spreads
** J.P. Morgan cuts Finnish telecom provider Elisa ELISA.HE to "underweight" from "neutral", citing downside risk from competition as Finnish market remains vulnerable, and Elisa's expensive valuation
** Barclays upgrades British property investment and development firm Derwent London DLN.L to "equal-weight" from "underweight", welcoming the company's focus on earnings and capital discipline, noting its more attractive valuation following the recent underperformance
INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS
** Goldman Sachs initiates Italian bank Monte dei Paschi BMPS.MI with "buy", pointing to strong fundamentals that remain incompletely priced in, alongside meaningful upside from revenue diversification and synergies from Mediobanca's MDBI.MI acquisition
** The brokerage also starts peer BPER Banca EMII.MI with "neutral", seeing limited upside to consensus estimates albeit solid profitability and capital distribution prospects
(*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 Olivier Cherfan and Tiago Brandao)
((olivier.cherfan@thomsonreuters.com))
