Credit Suisse gave a lift to shares in Man Group PLC (LON:EMG) on Friday as it started coverage on the hedge fund group with an ‘outperform’ rating as it sees “significant upside following a strong start to 2019".
The Swiss bank set a 180p price target on the FTSE 250-listed firm’s shares which implies 38% upside to the current level of 135.45p, up 3.5% on Thursday’s close.
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In a note to clients, Credit Suisse’s analysts said that, in their view, consensus forecasts are too conservative on Man Group’s expected first quarter performance and future buyback assumptions.
The analysts pointed out that their 2019 and 2020 pre-tax profit estimates are about 5% ahead of consensus-driven by performance fee growth, with their 2020 earnings per share estimate around 10% ahead.
They said they expect the company’s differentiated products to provide “better net new money generation, better relative performance across market conditions and better defence against margin competition than traditional asset managers."