Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC (LSE:IHG) is down 2.7% after JPMorgan downgraded the hotel operator to 'underweight' from 'neutral'.
In a sector review, the bank said it had been “surprised” by IHG's outperformance but now sees the risk-reward as “highly unappealing,” with a bear/bull cases suggesting close to around 20% downside/7% upside to the current share price.
The investment bank cut its price target for IHG to 5,400p, down 14% from 6,300p.
JPM keeps Whitbread as its conviction 'overweight', seeing 40% upside potential, and keeps Accor at 'neutral', with an unchanged price target of €39.
Last week, IHG reported travel demand remained strong in the third quarter and said occupancy levels were almost back to pre-Covid levels.
Elie Maalouf, chief executive officer, said: “Group-wide occupancy was 72%, just one percentage point behind 2019 which further confirms the near-complete return to pre‑Covid levels of demand.”