You wait for a broker recommendation for a bus company, then three come along at once.
Stagecoach Group was in the spotlight on Thursday with an upgrade and two (slight) downgrades.
Citigroup raised its recommendation to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, while Deutsche Bank and Barclays - which already rate the company as ‘buy’ and ‘overweight’ respectively - revised down their price targets.
Deutsche cuts its target to 390p from 460p, and Barclays’ drops to 340p from 400p.
It comes after the coach and rail group’s financial results for the first half year, which included what Deutsche called “surprisingly weak commentary”.
Stagecoach shares tumbled around 14% yesterday.
Citi, in its upgrade note, meanwhile says there’s been an overreaction to the company’s weaker guidance.
Elsewhere, Citi downgraded product tester Intertek (LON:ITRK) to ‘sell’ as it highlighted what it described as “US dollar distortions”.
Morgan Stanley has downgraded IMI (LON:IMI) to ‘equal weight’ from ‘overweight’.
RBC Capital has downgraded speciality insurance group Lancashire Holdings (LON:LRE) to ‘underperform’ from ‘sector perform’.
It also downgraded wealth manager St James Place (LON:STJ) to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform’.