Weekly Reports | Mar 26 2018
This story features BRAMBLES LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: BXB
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArena
Guide:
The FNArena database tabulates the views of eight major Australian and international stock brokers: Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, Morgans, Ord Minnett and UBS.
For the purpose of broker rating correlation, Outperform and Overweight ratings are grouped as Buy, Neutral is grouped with Hold and Underperform and Underweight are grouped as Sell to provide a Buy/Hold/Sell (B/H/S) ratio.
Ratings, consensus target price and forecast earnings tables are published at the bottom of this report.
Summary
Period: Monday March 19 to Friday March 23, 2018
Total Upgrades: 2
Total Downgrades: 6
Net Ratings Breakdown: Buy 43.88%; Hold 40.66%; Sell 15.46%
At a time when geopolitical and macro concerns are weighing on general investor sentiment, stockbroking analysts in Australia are issuing more downgrades than upgrades for ASX-listed entities.
For the week ending Friday, 23rd March 2018, FNArena only counted two upgrades and six downgrades. Both upgrades lifted to Buy (pfew) but then three of the downgrades sank to Sell.
Brambles and Nufarm were the lucky receivers of a new Buy rating each post an investor update and financial results release respectively. This can only be interpreted as encouraging by local investors.
On the flipside, Seek, Senex Energy and Synlait Milk all received one downgrade to Sell and valuation was a key factor in all three decisions.
Two retailers that updated investors with financial performances feature on top of the week's table for positive amendments to price targets, with Premier Investments and Kathmandu followed by Nufarm, Nine Entertainment and Brambles.
Only one stock features in the week's overview for negative revision to price targets: Seek.
Synlait Milk, Brickworks and TPG Telecom all had sizeable upward adjustments to earnings forecasts, followed by OZ Minerals, OceanaGold and Kathmandu. Alas, downward adjustments for the week look a lot stronger with struggling Myer at the very bottom, followed by Newcrest Mining, Nufarm, then Sigma Healthcare and New Hope Coal.
All in all, it appears that macro will continue dominating the micro and the picture for the latter remains rather ambiguous.
Upgrade
BRAMBLES LIMITED ((BXB)) Upgrade to Outperform from Neutral by Credit Suisse .B/H/S: 3/4/0
The company has offered a detailed plan for turning around the performance of the US business, improving cash conversion and offsetting cost inflation.
Credit Suisse is now more confident significant improvement can be delivered over the next 2-3 years and expects the technology investment will strengthen the network advantage.
Rating is upgraded to Outperform from Neutral. Target is raised to $10.40 from $9.40.
NUFARM LIMITED ((NUF)) Upgrade to Buy from Hold by Ord Minnett .B/H/S: 6/0/1
First half earnings were affected by weakness in Latin America and the downtime at the Laverton plant. Ord Minnett notes the company has enjoyed strong sales momentum in core geographies despite little or no market growth recently.
Ord Minnett observes increased valuation support for the stock which leads to an upgrade to Buy from Hold. Target is raised to $10.50 from $9.00.
Downgrade
MINERAL RESOURCES LIMITED ((MIN)) Downgrade to Accumulate from Buy by Ord Minnett .B/H/S: 3/1/0
Given recent share price strength, Ord Minnett downgrades its recommendation to Accumulate from Buy and lowers the target to $19.50 from $20.50.
The broker notes ASX lithium companies have largely recovered from recent concerns about oversupply. The broker prefers Orocobre ((ORE)), Galaxy Resources ((GXY)) and Kidman Resources ((KDR)) in the sector.
NINE ENTERTAINMENT CO. HOLDINGS LIMITED ((NEC)) Downgrade to Neutral from Outperform by Credit Suisse .B/H/S: 2/3/0
Credit Suisse increases FY18 earnings estimates by 2.9% to reflect a strong start to the 2018 ratings year. The broker forecasts a 39.0% market share in FY18. FY19 earnings estimates are raised by 8.1%.
A high level of sustainable market share is now factored into the price as well as reasonable valuations for the digital assets, in the broker's opinion. Rating is downgraded to Neutral from Outperform. Target rises to $2.35 from $2.10.
PREMIER INVESTMENTS LIMITED ((PMV)) Downgrade to Neutral from Buy by Citi .B/H/S: 3/3/0
Citi notes a large acceleration in online business during the first half. Bricks and mortar sales declined by -0.8% while online grew 72%. Citi forecasts a decline in second half gross margins of -43 basis points, softer than the first half decline of -87 basis points.
Meanwhile, inventory is expected to be in a good position and year-on-year discounting should not increase as much.
Rating is downgraded to Neutral from Buy, given the increase in the share price over the past four months. Target is raised to $16.40 from $15.30.
SEEK LIMITED ((SEK)) Downgrade to Reduce from Hold by Morgans .B/H/S: 1/2/4
The launch of Google For Jobs is expected in Australia shortly. Morgans believes that ultimately Seek has the power to see off the threat from Google, but initially there may be a drag on short term earnings.
There will likely also be a dip in market sentiment towards Seek given the potential impact of a new player, that being Google no less. Morgans still likes Seek long term but short term downside risk is elevated. Downgrade to Reduce. Target falls to $19.07 from $21.07.
SYNLAIT MILK LIMITED ((SM1)) Downgrade to Underperform from Neutral by Macquarie .B/H/S: 0/0/3
First half results were ahead of Macquarie's forecasts. No quantitative guidance was provided for the second half but this is expected to be softer because of some margin benefits in the first half.
Macquarie downgrades to Underperform from Neutral on valuation. The strong result was supported by the success of key customers and earnings are expected to grow as infant formula volumes ramp up.
Price target is raised to NZ$7.00 from NZ$5.29.
SENEX ENERGY LIMITED ((SXY)) Downgrade to Sell from Neutral by Citi .B/H/S: 3/3/1
Citi has downgraded to Sell/High Risk from Neutral/High Risk following a recent rally in the share price. Target price remains untouched at 35c.
As Citi has also increased its in-house forecasts for Brent and WTI oil prices by US$6 in 3Q18 to US$60/bbl and US$58/bbl respectively, earnings estimates have been lifted.
While pointing out there remains significant upside value potential, risks remain as well around well performance, cost control, gas contract pricing, funding and execution. As a result, investors are unlikely to pay up for the potential as yet, suggest the analysts.
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CHARTS
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: BXB - BRAMBLES LIMITED
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: MIN - MINERAL RESOURCES LIMITED
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: NEC - NINE ENTERTAINMENT CO. HOLDINGS LIMITED
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: NUF - NUFARM LIMITED
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: PMV - PREMIER INVESTMENTS LIMITED
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: SEK - SEEK LIMITED
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: SM1 - SYNLAIT MILK LIMITED