BUZZ-Top of the Street: Hunting, DNO, Michelin, Schaeffler

27 March (Reuters) - A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:

** Macquarie downgrades Hunting (Frankfurt: 0YT.F - news) to "neutral" due to headwinds in the U.S. market and 2018 upgrades integrated into expectations

** DNO (LSE: 0MHP.L - news) : RBC raises to "sector perform" as operations in Kurdistan region of Iraq are unaffected by September's independence referendum and it expects co to maintain high level of cash flow through 2018

** Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) cuts Michelin (Paris: FR0000121261 - news) to "equal-Weight" due to limited earnings upside, sees that "balance sheet optionality has played out given the offer to acquire Fenner (Stuttgart: 0UR.SG - news) "

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** Deutsche Bank (IOB: 0H7D.IL - news) initiates Instone with "buy" as the share price is not reflecting co's strong growth prospects and high return on capital employed (ROCE)

** Broker Equinet initiates Schaeffler (IOB: 0RBK.IL - news) with "buy" due to "risk/reward clearly skewed to the upside"

(*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.)