JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded Weir Group to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’ on Thursday and lifted the price target 1,970p from 1,800p, citing a good entry point.
The bank said the pullback in the shares since the interims has renewed interest in the stock, with investors questioning whether this is a buying opportunity.
“Weir is the highest quality asset amongst the downstream mining peers, with still to recover late-cycle exposure to a fundamentally attractive end-market,” it said.
JPM noted the shares have underperformed the sector by around 35% year-to-date and trade at a 25% discount on one-year forward price-to-earnings versus 10% historically, despite the sale of Oil & Gas.
“We would expect the stock to re-rate, closing this discount, as the later cycle recovery drives strong order and earnings growth over the medium term,” JPM said.
“Now is a good entry point and we upgrade Weir to overweight,” it said.
