Top of the Street: Commerzbank, Givaudan, Universal Music, European defence
09/09/2025 13:53
A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts: ** J.P.Morgan maintains its constructive view on European lenders, seeing the sector "still in the sweetspot" for a re-rating, and returns its preference for European over U.S. banks ** Among German lenders, it cuts Commerzbank CBKG.DE to "neutral" from "overweight", seeing the stock as fairly valued ** Davy upgrades Swiss flavour and fragrance maker Givaudan GIVN.S to "outperform" seeing the stock's recent de-rating as a buying opportunity ** Citigroup raises Universal Music Group UMG.AS to "buy" from "neutral" citing a better understanding of how and when a new contracts reached with Spotify will benefit the record labels ** Kepler Cheuvreux upgrades Belgian investor Sofina SOF.BR to "buy" from "hold" after recent share price decline INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS ** Barclays says European defence budget expansion into the 2030s is possible but not immune to risks and initiates Italy's Leonardo LDOF.MI and Germany's Hensoldt HAGG.DE with "equal-weight" ** It sees German budget as the most credible and selects Rheinmetall RHMG.DE as preferred stock among the four names it starts coverage on, initiating it with "overweight" rating ** The broker starts Sweden's Saab SAABb.ST at "underweight", saying it is its least preferred stock as it sees it "detached from fundamentals" and cites lower exposure to those European defence budgets that could grow faster, such as Germany (*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 Marta Serafinko in Gdansk) ((Marta.Serafinko@thomsonreuters.com;))