Better late than never for easyJet.
No, not anything to do with the budget airline's arrival times. Rather it's directed at analysts at JP Morgan, who have just decided their view of the airline might need updating.
In a note on the whole sector, the bank suggested that a restructuring of legacy airlines in Europe, along the lines of events in the US, was unlikely, meaning discounters like easyJet should continue to thrive.
So it has raised its rating on easyJet from underweight to overweight, and hiked its target price from just 625p to £15.40. This seems a little behind the curve, since easyJet has not been anywhere near 600p since November last year, and the airline has grown so valuable that it joined the FTSE 100 in March.
Nevertheless, JP Morgan's recommendation helped lift easyJet another 46p to £13.96.
Elsewhere hedge fund group Man also reacted to a broker note, this time a negative one. Its shares have fallen 2.45p to 86.7p after RBC Capital Markets moved from sector perform to underperform and reduced its price target from 120p to 85p. Analyst Peter Lenardos said:
Man is on track to report its eighth consecutive quarter of net outflows. Net outflows began in the third quarter of 2011 and we forecast a net outflow for the second quarter of 2013 of $2.1bn. Man continues to suffer asset withdrawals whereas most other asset managers are reporting net inflows.
Man should post declines on all key income statement metrics. We forecast that Man will report lower revenue (-12%), pretax profit (-31%) and earnings per share (-38%) in the first half of 2013, and will declare a dramatically lower interim dividend (-79%). [Key fund] AHL had a volatile quarter, increasing by 8% to near its high watermark, and then plunging 14% to end the quarter at its low.
Our level of caution remains elevated as earnings visibility has declined, and we continue to believe the shares should be avoided for investment purposes until the business shows signs of stability.
