BUZZ-Top of the Street: KPN, Hargreaves Lansdown, ABN AMRO

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

** Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) upgrades Koninklijke KPN (Amsterdam: KPN.AS - news) to "overweight" as it is "unique among EU telecoms". Brokerage says the company's free cash flow (FCF) forecasts are de-risked and expects return to growth in 2019 to rerate the stock

** After the recent sell-off Bernstein ups rating on Hargreaves Lansdown (Frankfurt: DMB.F - news) to "market perform". Brokerage says the company has steadily compounded earnings and AUA (assets under administration) over a decade and expects a double-digit growth in earnings and AUA to persist for the foreseeable future

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** Barclays starts coverage of ABN AMRO Group NV with "overweight" rating saying the market underappreciates the restructuring of the company's Corporate and Institutional Bank (CIB). Brokerage says 5 bln euros RwA (risk-weighted assets) reduction guidance is "a good start" but thinks the unit should rather be fully wound down.

(*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.)