Top of the Street: European brewers, Bayer, 3i Group, Wise, Besi

Royal Unibrew A/S

10/01/2024 13:17

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's
top-ranked* analysts:

    ** Stifel cuts Bayer  BAYGn.DE  to "hold" from "buy" saying
there's no short-term solution for the German
drugs-to-pesticides group's stretched balance sheet, as it
foresees further downside to consensus over the coming months
    ** Jefferies raises world's largest brewer AB Inbev  ABI.BR 
to "buy" from "hold", as it predicts margin recovery for the
sector in 2024
    ** Jefferies cuts Danish brewer Royal Unibrew  RBREW.CO  to
"underperform" from "hold", citing higher costs pressures and
some acquisitions that have diluted group margins
    ** Deutsche Bank cuts Dutch chip equipment maker BE
Semiconductor  BESI.AS  to "sell" from "hold", saying investors
may be getting a little carried away with the AI story for
semicaps
    ** RBC cuts Swiss staffing company Adecco  ADEN.S  to
"sector-perform" from "outperform" seeing tough macroeconomic
conditions for the sector in 2024
    ** Berenberg cuts Zurich Insurance Group  ZURN.S  to "hold"
from "buy", saying the current earnings estimates are in line
with the Swiss insurer's own flex outlook for 2025 EPS

    INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS
    ** Berenberg starts London-listed money transfer company
Wise  WISEa.L  with "buy", expecting ancillary income, such as
net interest income generated on customer balances, to help
boost consensus estimates
    ** UBS starts 3i Group PLC  III.L  at "buy", expecting the
UK-based investment company's "scarce asset", retail firm
Action, to deliver strong double-digit percentage EBITDA growth
thanks to continued rise in demand for its discount offer
    ** UBS initiates Intermediate Capital Group  ICP.L  with
"buy", seeing the British asset manager as a consistent
performer, and expecting fees on deployment to help maintain
growth momentum in pre-tax profits even if fundraising may pause
    ** Keybanc initiates Arcadis  ARDS.AS  with "overweight",
seeing the Dutch engineering and consultancy firm as being in
the early stages of delivering margin expansion through its more
focused strategy unveiled at the recent analyst day


(*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 Ozan Ergenay and Marta Frąckowiak)
 ((ozan.ergenay@thomsonreuters.com;
marta.frackowiak@thomsonreuters.com))