BUZZ-Top of the Street: Kering, DSV, ITV, Genmab

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

** Top-rated analyst Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) raises Gucci-owner Kering (Swiss: KER.SW - news) to "outperform" from "neutral", saying Gucci brand continues to grow mindshare on social media among luxury brands. Broker says brand can outperform peers again this year as the competition has been slow to react to need for newness

** Stifel upgrades Danish logistics company DSV (LSE: 0JN9.L - news) to "buy", says co will continue to gain share, and will do so more profitably than peers

** 5 star rated analyst Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) cuts British broadcaster ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) to "equal-weight" from "overweight", saying it doesn't see many positives from 2017 results and 2018 advertising trends. Unless advertising accelerates significantly from June onwards, it struggles to see where momentum would come from, the broker adds

** Peel Hunt raises Moneysupermarket to "buy" from "hold", saying it is not convinced the co has become a bad business overnight, despite some issues identified by the new CEO

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** UCB: Barclays initiates Belgian biotech co with "underweight" rating, expecting "tepid earnings growth and stagnant top-line growth"

** Barclays starts covering Merck (LSE: 0O14.L - news) with "underweight" rating, noting few pipeline catalysts in pharma and a liquid crystals business coming off peak profitability and experiencing competition

** Barclays initiates coverage of Ipsen with "overweight", naming it one of its preferred EU midcaps, "with smart positioning in growth niche specialty segments and potential upside from further intelligent deployment of a robust balance sheet"

** Genmab (LSE: 0MGB.L - news) : Barclays starts with "overweight", pointing to the co's key asset Darzalex that "recently eclipsed blockbuster status globally", and expecting the strong growth in the multiple myeloma setting to continue

** Jefferies starts covering Metso (Amsterdam: MS6.AS - news) with "hold" due to its slow structural recovery

(*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.)