Informa PLC (LON:INF) shares fell back on Thursday as JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded its rating for the media and events group to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ ahead of interim results due on September 21, 2020.
In a note to clients, the US bank’s analysts said: ”We have previously seen Informa as an attractive recovery play and long-term structural growth story. However, from here we have doubts: while employees are increasingly returning back to their offices, long haul business travel remains subdued and we expect the events industry to suffer longer than initially anticipated.”
They added: “While it is consensus that 2020 is a write-off for the space, we more and more anticipate cancellations also for H121 ‒ causing further downgrades to consensus expectations. Today, we cut our FY20/21/22 EPS estimates by -41%/-31%/-7% (though on low absolute numbers) largely driven by a weaker events business.”
As a result, the analysts said their target price for Informa is chopped to 389p from 528p previously and given limited upside to that target, they have downgraded the FTSE 100-listed firm's shares.
In morning trade on Thursday, Informa shares were 2.6% lower at 390.60p.