Yahoo Finance Bramson bid to double Barclays’ share price is snubbed
The City poured cold water on Edward Bramson’s attempt to shake up Barclays on Tuesday, seriously doubting his bid to double the bank’s share price has any real hope of succeeding.
The activist investor has built up a 5% stake, it emerged on Monday.
On Tuesday Ian Gordon at Investec, one of the City’s top analysts, immediately advised clients to sell the shares.
He downgraded his recommendation from Buy to Hold and said: “We advise taking profits.”
The shares moved up yesterday as the Bramson news emerged, but were flat at best today, sitting at 216p.
JPMorgan Cazenove thinks the shares are still a buy but believes “self-help measures” will be enough to boost the stock.
“Post a meeting with CFO Tushar Morzaria, we came away constructive on our investment thesis... Barclays remains positively geared to the ongoing resilience of the UK economy,” wrote Raul Sinha. Even JPM, the in-house broker, thinks Bramson’s notion he can double the share price seems ambitious.
The stock hasn’t been above £4 for around 10 years.
JPM has a price target of 250p and says the bank may not need outside help to restructure.
“Any major strategic change would restart the cycle on restructuring and might create costs,” it said.
