BUZZ-Top of the Street: Roche, DSM, easyJet, Sage, Berkeley, French REITs

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

** UBS says it believes Roche's business model is less challenged now, raises company to "buy" from "neutral" on lower capital intensity assumptions

** KBC Securities cuts DSM to "hold" from "accumulate" as it becomes "more conservative" on the upcoming Q2 results, seeing mild pressure on materials division EBITDA

** Jefferies sees an opportunity to "buy" Berkeley (upgrade from "hold") as sentiment toward the London housing market remains difficult and the share price is likely to continue to be "buffeted" in the run-up to Brexit

** As Brexit looms, Societe Generale cuts easyJet to "sell" from "hold", pointing to a stock valuation that is "as good as it can get" ahead of EU-UK discussions resuming

** Bank of America Merrill Lynch cuts Sage to "underperform" from "buy" as it sees the company's cloud transition "taking longer and costing more"

** Two French mall REITs Unibail Rodamco Westfield and Klepierre get an "underperform" downgrade at Credit Suisse, from "neutral" and "outperform" respectively, as the brokerage points to structural pressures on malls, its analysis of cross-border expansion opportunities in Europe and the U.S., and weak recurring earnings growth

(*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.)