BUZZ-Top of the Street: Caixabank, BT Group, hospitality and infrastructure

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

** Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) cuts SEB (LSE: 0MGS.L - news) to "equal weight" due to its relatively higher exposure to areas where broker expects higher competition

** Handelsbanken's price target of SEK 111 is now commensurate with 2020 estimated return on tangible equity of $13.6, says Barclays, upgrading to "equal weight"

** Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) downgrades Caixabank (Amsterdam: CB6.AS - news) to "sell", citing the highest mortgage exposure in its coverage

** BT Group (Other OTC: BTGOF - news) : Goldman Sachs raises to "buy" as broker's forecasts are now ahead of consensus for the first time in two years

** KBC Securities says it is increasingly difficult to assess the reliability of Bpost (EUREX: BPO.EX - news) 's forward looking statements after co issues profit warning, cuts to "hold"

** Deutsche Bank (IOB: 0H7D.IL - news) ups Dassault Aviation (LSE: 0IAX.L - news) to "buy"

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** RBC makes a series of initiations in the pubs, restaurants and hotels sectors: starts Greene King (Frankfurt: A0F66P - news) Merlin Entertainments (Frankfurt: A1W713 - news) and Accor (EUREX: 485822.EX - news) with "outperform" while and Intercontinental Hotels (Frankfurt: IC1F.F - news) and Whitbread (Frankfurt: WHF4.F - news) are initiated with "sector perform"

** Exane BNP Paribas sees opportunities for outperformance in the infrastructure sector -- in tollroads, broker prefers Ferrovial (Amsterdam: FV6.AS - news) and Atlantia (EUREX: 1683373.EX - news) (both initiated at "outperform"); in airports broker says Aena (Dusseldorf: 26876733.DU - news) provides upside risk, initiating co at "outperform"

** "We think that Capita (LSE: CPI.L - news) will face negative organic growth and FCF in FY2018 and FY2019, which is likely to continue to weigh on shares near term", says Goldman Sachs, reinstating its "neutral" rating

** Exane re-initiates coverage of JCDecaux (LSE: 0MGO.L - news) with "underperform" as broker expects growth could decelerate and expects sustained cost base to limit margin upside in 2019

(*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.)