Top of the Street: BAT, Direct Line, Givaudan, LVMH, Legrand, Nemetschek
27/01/2025 12:16
A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's
top-ranked* analysts:
** UBS raises British American Tobacco BATS.L to "buy"
from "neutral" as it expects BAT's Velo nicotine pouches to
accelerate New Categories' sales growth; enabling the group to
deliver its 2026 outlook
** UBS cuts British motor insurer Direct Line DLGD.L to
"neutral" from "buy" seeing that the Aviva offer crystallizes
the value in Direct Line
** J.P. Morgan raises Swiss fragrance and flavour maker
Givaudan GIVN.S to "overweight" from "neutral" believing the
shares offer an opportunity for upside as the market should rate
its compounding top-line, positive EPS momentum and emerging
balance sheet optionality
** Morgan Stanley raises French luxury goods giant LVMH
LVMH.PA to "overweight" from "equal weight" saying that while
LVMH should face a number of challenges in 2025, it's prospects
have materially improved in recent weeks
** Jefferies downgrades French electrical and digital
building infrastructure group Legrand LEGD.PA to
"underperform" from "hold" as analysts point to the company's
lower organic growth and lack of margin expansion vs peers
** Goldman Sachs raises German software developer Nemetschek
NEKG.DE to "buy" from "neutral" seeing a positive inflection
in the group's organic growth profile
(*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 Anna Chaberska and Elviira Luoma)
((Elviira.luoma@thomsonreuters.com))