BUZZ-Top of the Street: LVMH, Caixabank, Vivendi, Ericsson

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

** LVMH: Socgen (Paris: FR0000130809 - news) cuts to "hold" on valuation grounds; stock up 27% in last 6 months

** Caixabank (Amsterdam: CB6.AS - news) : RBC cuts to "sector perform", still sees it as a well-run bank, but says its sensitivity to rising Euribor expectations now reflected in share price

** ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) : Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) analyst Lisa Yang sees greater upside potential elsewhere; removes from Pan-Europe Conviction Buy List but keeps "buy" rating as risk/reward is still attractive with an optionality on retransmission fees and M&A

** GS adds instead Vivendi (LSE: 0IIF.L - news) to the conviction list after reiterating "buy" as the broker is gaining more confidence in the acceleration in music growth and the turnaround at Canal+

** Numis cuts Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE.L - news) to "hold", saying that input costs can be volatile and Food & Beverage customers can be fickle with their custom; adds that the bulk ingredients division retains the scope to spring surprises

** Ericsson (Hanover: ERCB.HA - news) : Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) upgrades to "neutral". "While we acknowledge near-term headwinds for Ericsson, there seems to be more urgency around improving profitability. This may lead to certain asset disposals or shut down of loss making businesses which can improve margins starting from late 2H17," CS says

(*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.)