Broker tips: Man Group, Genuit, AstraZeneca

(Sharecast News) - Citi downgraded Man Group on Wednesday to 'neutral' from 'buy' and slashed its price target on the stock to 185.0p from 265.0p on "significant performance earnings risks". The bank noted that the shares have fallen around 20% year-to-date, notably underperforming its European Diversified Financials coverage up 5%.

"While we are constructive on the group's medium-term growth outlook, we are concerned that recent weak performance of key (high-margin) AHL strategies could continue, potentially resulting in both outflows but also weak performance fee generation," Citi said. "Indeed, we do not expect key AHL strategies to generate performance fees until 2027, resulting in Citi estimates circa 20% below consensus over FY25-27."

Citi said the stock's valuation was not demanding and offers significant optionality to any recovery in performance, but with significant downside risk to consensus estimates, it sees "less pressing need for investors to own the shares now".

JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded Genuit - formerly Polypipe - on Wednesday, to 'overweight' from 'neutral' and lifted its price target to 490.0p from 450.0p as it rolled forward its valuation to December 2026 from June 2026.

JPM said that upon its initiation of the stock in October 2024, while it was positive on the mid-term outlook at Genuit, it thought the relative re-rating in the shares had gone too far, especially given its more cautious view on the pace of a recovery in end markets.

Since then, the shares have de-rated around 20% relative to JPM's coverage and now trade at close to their widest discount in a decade to other residential-exposed names in the bank's coverage.

"With forecasts and end markets having stabilised, and some green shoots appearing, particularly in new build resi, we now see risk/ reward as more favourable; and in the mid-term, see more than 30% earnings upside to our forecasts (pre any M&A)," JPM said.

Analysts at Berenberg raised their target price on drugmaker AstraZeneca from £140 to £142 per share on Wednesday, citing "strong pipeline readouts" which were yet to be reflected in its share price.

Berenberg increased its 2030 revenue forecast for AstraZeneca by roughly 3% to $79.0bn, ahead of consensus and steadily approaching the company's ambition of $80.0bn.

The German bank also highlighted that AstraZeneca has seen "substantial pipeline progress" already this year and, in its view, shares should factor in a larger pipeline valuation.

"AstraZeneca is set to deliver industry-leading sales and EPS growth from its innovative, rejuvenated portfolio. As profitability improves, so does the cash position. With the dividend covered, management has more cash at its disposal to invest in R&D," said Berenberg. "Our return on R&D investment (RORI) analysis indicates superior pipeline returns, ahead of the cost of capital and the sector average. The next 12-18 months will bring significant pipeline newsflow, which could trigger upward revisions to forecasts."