Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LON:BKG) has been downgraded to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ by analysts at Liberum for the first time in ten years as analysts said they did not see “any upside” to the current share price.
The broker, which upped its target price to 4,000p from 3,750p, said they believed the market was currently pricing in “a 15% improvement to profits and returns” for the FTSE 100 housebuilder, which they considered to be “at the upper end of the possible range”.
READ: Housebuilders diverge as analysts look for election winners
“We believe that affordability remains stretched in the south, so volumes are more likely to recover than prices, and earnings are much less geared to volume than price”, Liberum said.
Looking to the wider housebuilding sector, the broker said that should the Conservatives secure a majority at next week’s election, an outcome it deemed “the most likely”, the market was likely to “benefit from reduced politico-economic uncertainty”.
“While it is true that the UK macro-economic outlook is impacted by deteriorating international demand trends, forecasters expect strong wage growth to mean rising real wages across the medium term. Reduced uncertainty should allow these to translate into better house price trends”, analysts said, although they added that even if a Brexit withdrawal agreement was secured the uncertainty related to the exit process would only be “reduced and not eliminated”.
Shares in Berkeley dipped 0.8% to 4,575p in mid-morning trading on Thursday.