Top of the Street: Bunzl, Boliden, European recruiters, advertising firms
BUZZ-Top of the Street: Bunzl, Boliden, European recruiters, advertising firms A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:
** Exane BNP Paribas ups business supplies distributor Bunzl BNZL.L to "outperform" from "neutral", saying the market has overestimated the lasting earnings damage from North American execution issues and margin weakness, with both now improving
** Morgan Stanley upgrades Dutch recruiter Randstad RAND.AS to "equal-weight" from "underweight", preferring it over Swiss rival Adecco ADEN.S, as Randstad has lower leverage and limited dilution risk while consensus also looks less demanding
** MS cuts Adecco to "underweight" from "equal-weight", citing risk of organic growth deterioration this year due to the staffing group's larger exposure to France and tougher comparison base
INITIATIONS
** Berenberg starts French advertising company Publicis PUBP.PA with "buy" and ranks it the strongest in the sector, saying its "Power of One" initiative and acquisitions of Sapient and Epsilon drive growth and profitability
** Berenberg also initiates WPP WPP.L with "buy", saying the British ad firm has the "right assets" and the challenge lies in the execution of its "Elevate28" plan and client-centric model
** Goldman Sachs starts Swedish miner Boliden BOL.ST with "sell", citing the "operational complexity" of ramping up its Garpenberg mine following a recent seismic event
(*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 and Amir Orusov)