BUZZ-Top of the Street: Weir, Meggitt, Beazley, Bpost, WH Smith
A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:
** 5-star analyst Amy Wong of UBS (LSE: 0QNR.L - news) raises Weir to "buy" as the share price now appears to reflect concerns over US bottlenecks limiting growth in shale oil
** Meggitt (Other OTC: MEGGF - news) : Berenberg says Meggitt reached a turning point after co upgraded its guidance; broker says co will benefit from favorable trends in end-markets: growth in air traffic and low levels of aircraft retirements, which will drive demand for spare parts; Berenberg upgrades stock to "buy"
** JPMorgan (LSE: JPIU.L - news) cuts asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown (Frankfurt: DMB.F - news) to "underweight" as it sees delays in earnings uplift from active savings and some regulatory uncertainty weighing on the valuation
** Kepler Cheuvreux argues Bpost (EUREX: BPO.EX - news) is on one hand too pessimistic about its traditional mail business and on the other, too optimistic about Redial, its e-commerce logistics business acquired in 2017, which the broker says will face competition and tax pressures; cuts to "hold"
** RBC raises Beazley (LSE: BEZ.L - news) to "top pick" as it values its sustainable business mix and engagement in the "fast-growing highly profitable" cyber insurance market
** Convenience retailer for travelers, WH Smith (LSE: SMWH.L - news) , also joins RBC's "top pick" list, as group's earnings forecast remains fairly stable and travel trends hold strong
(*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)