BUZZ-Top of the Street: BNP Paribas, DSM, Wirecard, UK capgoods

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

** BNP Paribas (LSE: 0HB5.L - news) : Kepler Cheuvreux raises to "buy", saying it took an opportunistic call ahead of the bank's investor day and new strategic plan (likely in March)

** Wirecard (Swiss: WDI.SW - news) : Top-rated analyst Alexandre Faure (Exane BNP Paribas) cuts to "neutral", saying he continues to like the stock but sees few catalysts, and upside elsewhere

** Braas Monier : HSBC downgrades to "hold", calling Standard Industries (BSE: 530017.BO - news) offer a fair one

** DSM : Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) ups to "overweight", sees stock as one of the most attractive investment cases in European chemicals despite share price underperformance due to declining vitamin E prices

** Atlas Copco (LSE: 0R82.L - news) : UBS (LSE: 0QNR.L - news) expects co's end markets will help revenue growth outperform its industry peers by 200bps within the next 2 yrs, prompting it to upgrade the stock to "buy"

INITIATIONS:

** UK Cap Goods: Goldman starts Rotork (Frankfurt: RO41.F - news) , Smiths Group (Frankfurt: QS2A.F - news) with a "buy" rating, and IMI (LSE: IMI.L - news) , Halma with "neutral", saying the coverage initiations are of "niche players with nuanced growth outlooks"

Rotork: GS's PT for Rotork (Swiss: OXRO.SW - news) (GBp 280) is the most bullish among the 20 brokers covering the stock, and the "buy" ratings on the stock have jumped to 6 from 1 in Sept 2016. GS forecasts 54% earnings growth by 2020 on oil & gas capex recovery and greater infra spend

Smiths Group: sees as the biggest beneficiary of sterling weakness with nearly half its sales coming from the U.S.

GS sees no imminent catalysts for IMI and believes Halma (Frankfurt: 865047 - news) 's high quality is reflected in a 30% sector premium

** Natixis (LSE: 0IHK.L - news) : Deutsche Bank (IOB: 0H7D.IL - news) starts with a "hold", pointing to high dividend yield (6-7%) and play on US exposure (c40% of net income)

** Melrose Industries (Frankfurt: 27MA.F - news) : Panmure starts with a "buy", saying Melrose (LSE: 136541.L - news) can deliver much faster growth in shareholder value from its Nortek (NasdaqGS: NTK - news) acquisition over the next 3 years than the current market estimates

(*Analyst rankings from Thomson Reuters StarMine. Scale is from 1-star to 5-star with 5 being best. Analysts ranked on earnings accuracy as well as relative performance of recommendations over trailing 12-month & 24-month periods.)