Citi downgrades Australia's Latitude Group to 'sell', cuts price target

Latitude group

19/04/2023 22:22

** Citi sees the impact of the cyber attack on Australia's
Latitude Group Holdings Ltd  LFS.AX  as more than minimal, with
a material upgrade needed to its information technology  
    ** Citi downgrades stock to "sell" from "neutral", slashes
its price target to A$1.10 per share from A$1.30 per share 
    ** Citi says in addition to the short-term costs of the
cyber incident, the company has to invest significantly in
technology, and faces a potential civil penalty imposed by
regulators  
    ** Broker cuts its FY23 earnings forecast to an A$18 million
 ($12.09 million) statutory loss, although it says some of this
will be recovered in FY24
    ** Citi adds that it is difficult to gauge the long-term
impacts of the cyber incident from a top-line perspective
    ** None of five analysts covering the stock rate it "buy" or
higher; two have "hold" and three "sell" or lower; median price
target is A$1.18 – Refinitiv data
    ** Stock has fallen ~1.2% this year, as of last close


($1 = 1.4890 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Archishma Iyer; Editing by Jamie Freed)
 ((Archishma.Iyer@thomsonreuters.com;))