>>> US Research Calls

Research Calls
  • Upgrades:
    • Allstate (ALL) upgraded to Buy from Hold at HSBC Securities; tgt raised to $190
    • Estee Lauder (EL) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA Securities; tgt $170
    • Lands' End (LE) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Craig Hallum; tgt raised to $15
    • Millicom International Cellular (TIGO) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan
    • Omnicom (OMC) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Exane BNP Paribas; tgt $115
    • PNC (PNC) upgraded to Hold from Reduce at HSBC Securities; tgt raised to $155
    • Public Storage (PSA) upgraded to Strong Buy from Mkt Perform at Raymond James; tgt $330
    • Triumph Group (TGI) upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research; tgt $18
    • U.S. Bancorp (USB) upgraded to Buy from Hold at HSBC Securities; tgt raised to $53
    • Vornado Rlty Trust (VNO) upgraded to Equal-Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley; tgt raised to $26
  • Downgrades:
    • Albany Intl (AIN) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities; tgt lowered to $95
    • Apple (AAPL) downgraded to Hold from Buy at DZ Bank; tgt $180
    • Bank of America (BAC) downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC Securities; tgt raised to $39
    • Extra Space Storage (EXR) downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James; tgt $160
    • Galapagos NV (GLPG) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities; tgt lowered to $31
    • Molina Healthcare (MOH) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities; tgt $439
    • Palantir Technologies (PLTR) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Monness Crespi & Hardt; tgt $20
    • Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Compass Point; tgt $17
    • Vista Energy (VST) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS; tgt raised to $47
    • Weibo (WB) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman
  • Others:
    • ADC Therapeutics (ADCT) initiated with a Buy at Guggenheim; tgt $11
    • Aquestive Therapeutics (AQST) initiated with an Outperform at Raymond James; tgt $7
    • Bentley Systems (BSY) initiated with an Outperform at William Blair
    • CyberArk (CYBR) initiated with a Buy at BTIG Research; tgt $317
    • Global Net Lease (GNL) initiated with a Hold at Truist; tgt $7
    • Grindr (GRND) initiated with a Buy at TD Cowen; tgt $12
    • Immunovant Sciences (IMVT) initiated with an Outperform at Oppenheimer; tgt $50
    • Jasper Therapeutics (JSPR) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts; tgt $70
    • Merus (MRUS) initiated with a Buy at Truist; tgt $69
    • Progress Software (PRGS) initiated with a Buy at DA Davidson; tgt $65
    • Scholar Rock (SRRK) initiated with a Strong Buy at Raymond James; tgt $30
    • SI-BONE (SIBN) initiated with an Overweight at Piper Sandler; tgt $25
    • Solid Biosciences (SLDB) initiated with an Outperform at William Blair; tgt $40
    • TransMedics Group (TMDX) initiated with an Overweight at Piper Sandler; tgt $95
    • TruBridge (TRBG) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts; tgt $13
    • Veru (VERU) initiated with an Outperform at Raymond James; tgt $3
    • Xeris Biopharma (XERS) initiated with an Outperform at Oppenheimer; tgt $5

>>> Walt Disney urges shareholders to vote for only Disney’s 12 director nominee

Walt Disney urges shareholders to vote for only Disney’s 12 director nominees (120.98)
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today urged shareholders to protect their investment and the future of the Company by making sure their votes are in on the WHITE proxy card in support of ONLY Disney's 12 director nominees (and not the Trian Group or Blackwells nominees). Disney encourages ALL shareholders to vote their shares online or by telephone no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on April 2, 2024. Instructions to vote by internet or telephone can be found on the WHITE proxy card.

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
  • MLKN -16.2%, CC -8.6% (also determines internal control was not effective), FC -7%, DOOO -5.7%, RUM -4.8%, BRZE -3%, VNET -2.7%, WBA -1.8%, FUL -1.3%
Other news:
  • SSP -5.6% (to be removed from S&P SmallCap 600)
  • LUNR -4.9% (files $300 mln share offering; also files for offering by selling shareholders, relates to warrants)
  • SNX -4.7% (prices secondary offering of 10.5 mln shares of common stock and concurrent share repurchase)
  • PYXS -4% (stock offering by selling shareholders)
  • MODV -3.8% (to be removed from S&P SmallCap 600)
  • ATS -2.3% (C$163 mln secondary offering) TAP -1.5% (returns to bargaining table following Fort Worth Brewery Teamsters' boycott, according to Teamsters)
  • TTWO -1.3% (acquires The Gearbox Entertainment Company for $460 mln)
  • ALV -1.2% (retired 1,370,057 shares of common stock that had been repurchased during the quarter which resulted in a decrease in the issued shares)
  • XRAY -1.1% (to move to S&P MidCap 400 from S&P 500)

>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
  • CXM +12.4%, RH +9.1%, CWCO +6.4%, VRNT +3.9%, USAP +2.3%
Other news:
  • AKBA +17.9% (receives FDA approval of Vafseo Tablets)
  • ERAS +14.1% (enters into a securities purchase agreement to sell 21,844,660 shares of common stock in an oversubscribed private placement at a price of $2.06 per share)
  • HCM +7.7% (receives sNDA acceptance for Savolitinib in China for treatment-naïve or previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic MET Exon 14 NSCLC)
  • ABOS +6.8% (files $200 mln mixed shelf securities offering)
  • RILY +5.4% (has secured an extension under its existing credit agreement with Nomura Corporate Funding Americas)
  • STOK +3.1% (prices upsized $125 million public offering)
  • SNOW +3% (CEO bought 31542 shares worth ~$5 mln)
  • ALDX +2.9% (announces the clinical development plan intended to enable resubmission of a New Drug Application of topical ocular 0.25% reproxalap)
  • GDS +2.7% (discloses Series A Preferred Share Subscription Agreement)
  • HITI +2.4% (closes acquisition of Canadian cannabis brand Queen of Bud)
  • HA +1.4% (HA and ALK enter into timing agreement with DOJ relating to merger)
  • SGMT +1.2% (completes Phase 1 hepatic impairment study with denifanstat)

>>> US Early premarket gappers

Early premarket gappers
  • Gapping up:
    • AKBA +18.8%, ERAS +13.1%, ABOS +12%, CXM +10.6%, RH +7.8%, RILY +6.3%, CWCO +4.6%, GDS +3.6%, SNOW +3.3%, VRNT +2.9%, SGMT +2.8%, HITI +2.4%, HA +1.4%, STOK +1.1%, DOLE +0.8%, GDYN +0.7%, FOXF +0.7%
  • Gapping down:
    • MLKN -15.5%, CC -11.3%, FC -7%, SSP -5.6%, SNX -5.1%, LUNR -5.1%, RUM -4.7%, DOOO -3.9%, MODV -3.8%, BRZE -3%, FUL -1.9%, VEON -1.7%, TAP -1.5%, VNET -1.5%, ALV -1.4%, PRKS -1.3%, TTWO -1.3%, ATS -1.2%, PYXS -1.2%, XRAY -1.1%, VFC -0.7%

FT : UBS makes Sergio Ermotti best-paid European bank boss

UBS makes Sergio Ermotti best-paid European bank boss
Swiss lender awards returning chief executive $15.9mn for steering integration of Credit Suisse

UBS has made Sergio Ermotti Europe’s best-paid bank boss less than a year after he returned to the lender, saying the Swiss executive had successfully steered the integration of rival Credit Suisse.

Ermotti was paid a total of SFr14.4mn ($15.9mn) last year, the bank’s annual report said on Thursday, higher than the SFr12.6mn received by his predecessor Ralph Hamers in 2022.

But Ermotti’s pay was only for nine months. Spread across a full year, his total pay package would be SFr19.2mn.

Ermotti was parachuted back into the top job — a role he previously had for nine years — just weeks after UBS agreed to rescue Credit Suisse last March. Since then, the bank’s share price has climbed 60 per cent.

His remuneration exceeds the €12.2mn ($13.2mn) received by Santander executive chair Ana Botin and the £10.6mn ($13.4mn) paid to HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn, whose package nearly doubled thanks to a maturing long-term incentive plan.

However, it trails the awards dished out to Wall Street peers. Last year JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon was paid $36mn, Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon was paid $31mn and outgoing Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman received $37mn.

In a statement on Thursday, the UBS board said the pay award was in recognition of Ermotti’s “excellent performance in a defining year in UBS’s history and strong progress in delivering on integration priorities”.

Ermotti’s total pay also dwarfs the awards of chief executives at other major European banks, including Christian Sewing of Deutsche Bank, who was paid €8.9mn last year, and Andrea Orcel of UniCredit, whose maximum payout is €9.75mn.

Unlike ECB-regulated banks, UBS is not restricted by a cap on banker bonuses, with EU rules ordering that bonuses cannot be more than twice the size of fixed pay.

Ermotti’s award comes as the bank’s bonus pool shrank by 14 per cent compared with the combined pool at UBS and Credit Suisse in 2022. It fell despite UBS paying $736mn in retention awards to some Credit Suisse staff to stay on after the takeover.

The fall echoes a wider drop across the banking sector as dealmaking dried up.

In a letter to shareholders accompanying UBS’s annual report, Ermotti and chair Colm Kelleher hit out at critics of the bank’s size and capital requirements ahead of moves by the Swiss government to shore up the country’s banking system.

The lender has come under scrutiny within Switzerland following its rescue of Credit Suisse, especially over the size of the combined group’s balance sheet — roughly twice the country’s gross domestic product.

The Swiss central bank recently called on regulators to review UBS’s capital requirements in light of its increased “systemic importance”.

In the letter, Kelleher and Ermotti said Credit Suisse failed due to a “broken business model” rather than a lack of capital.

“The fact that we were in a position to rescue Credit Suisse, despite both firms operating under the same regulatory regime, shows the framework and capital requirements were not the problem,” they wrote.

The pair also responded to criticism that the size of UBS within the Swiss market has harmed competition.

“The collapse of Credit Suisse unleashed an extraordinary race for clients, talent and market share in the Swiss banking market,” they wrote. “This is the ultimate proof that the competition provided by both domestic and foreign banks active in Switzerland is robust.”

The Swiss parliament is carrying out an investigation into the collapse of Credit Suisse, which will result in recommendations for improving the stability of the banking system. There is also a separate government review of the country’s “too-big-to-fail” regime, which is designed to safeguard important banks from collapse.

WWD : No Need to Cross the Seine for Cyril Lignac’s Bar des Prés

No Need to Cross the Seine for Cyril Lignac’s Bar des Prés
After the original in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and an address in London, the French chef is bringing his crudo-centric eatery to Paris’ Right Bank.

Fans of Cyril Lignac’s cuisine, rejoice.

The French chef and TV personality is set to put the traditional rivalry between the two sides of the Seine to bed with the opening of a new outpost of his crudo-centric Bar des Prés on Paris’ Right Bank.

“When I found this spot on Rue Bayard, there were many in the area who are already my clients in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and it would save people from having to cross Paris, because traffic is a bit complicated now,” he says.

Now they won’t have to brave rush hour and crossing bridges for his cuisine that plays on a menu of fish, seasonal produce and flavor-packed seasonings, with the opening of its latest address this week.

A stone’s throw from tony Avenue Montaigne, with Dior, Chanel and Loewe among its closest neighbors, the Bar des Prés is the third of its kind after the 2021 opening of a second one on London’s Albemarle Street in Mayfair.

For Montaigne’s 36-seat eatery, which will have another 22 spots on its terrace come warmer days, the chef once more called on Paris-based architectural practice Studio KO.

“We started together 20 years ago. They weren’t well-known — and neither was I,” he says. Not only have they designed the first Bar des Prés in 2016 and its recent renovation, as well as his five pastry shops, but they also designed Lignac’s apartment.

“And that’s important because if I ask them to do my apartment, it’s that I absolutely love what they do,” he says.

The idea was not to clone the initial Bar des Prés, which opened eight years ago, but to give it a remake. “I wanted a chic restaurant, somewhere elegant, comfortable, of the moment, light,” he says of the brief. “A place where you can come eat every day and feel good, casual.”

From the street, the midnight blue façade stands out against the sandstones hues of the building and offers a glimpse of golden light inside.

Warm tones dominate the interior, from the long yellow Italian marble counter and the mahogany wall paneling to rattan light fixtures and even the embroidered peacock fabric that dresses the plush seating.

The floor’s electric blue leopard carpet brings a touch of whimsy and finds an echo in a fresco by French painter Soazig Héaulme, an atmospheric depiction of the sea that draws the eye.

On the plates — signed by the likes of former PR-turned-ceramic artist Fabienne Rossi or Burgundy-based ceramist duo Les Guimards — expect a continuation of Lignac’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés culinary signatures that have made him a popular choice with the fashion set.

There will be the just-seared yellowtail with a ponzu sauce and a dash of spicy oil, the luscious “chutoro” cut of tuna with a jalapeño vinaigrette or a crispy cracker topped with crab seasoned with Madras curry and avocado.

“What I like in Bar des Prés is working around raw ingredients, so a cuisine around fish and vegetables, and around vinaigrettes, condiments and infusions that I use to bring flavor,” he explains.

For this Frenchman born in the southern city of Rodez, the art of crudo evokes first and foremost Mediterranean cuisine, encompassing dishes found along the French, Italian and Greek coastlines. “It’s really the culture of this whole basin which you can hear in my accent, no matter how much I try to hide it,” he jokes.

And Bar des Prés Montaigne diners might be the first to experience his next project: a sorbet of sudachi, a rare small green sour citrus akin to a lime.

The opening of these latest addresses also formalizes a new chapter for Bar des Prés as a brand in its own right. Each of the restaurants will now get its location tacked onto its moniker — Montaigne, Mayfair and Saint-Germain.

And Lignac is ready to take it abroad again soon, with Dubai as the next destination, a project the independent restaurateur is developing with the support of a local partner.

“It’s a template,” he says. “It would work on the Mediterranean, on the Riviera, even in Rome — we could a Bar des Prés anywhere.”

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 28th of March 2024 V2(+)

>>> Up
* El.En. Raised to Buy at Berenberg
* Elis PT Raised to 30 euros from 25.50 euros at Deutsche Bank (+)
* Euronav Raised to Buy at KBC Securities; PT 19 euros (+)
* H&M Raised to Buy at Danske Bank Markets; PT 205 kronor (+)
* HAL Raised to Accumulate at KBC Securities; PT 141 euros (+)
* Holcim Raised to Outperform at Oddo BHF; PT 95 Swiss francs
* Kone Raised to Outperform at Oddo BHF
* LEGRAND RAISED TO OVERWEIGHT AT MORGAN STANLEY, PT EU110
* Lonza Raised to Buy at Kepler Cheuvreux; PT 600 Swiss francs (+)
* Millicom GDRs Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 260 kronor
* MOL Raised to Accumulate at Erste Group; PT 3,450 forint
* Omnicom Raised to Outperform at BNPP Exane; PT $115 (+)
* OMV Raised to Buy at Erste Group; PT 52.50 euros
* Pirelli PT Raised to 7.30 euros from 6.40 euros at Citi
* Public Power Reinstated Overweight at Euroxx Securities
* Scor Raised to Buy at HSBC; PT 38 euros (+)

>>> Down
* Accelleron Cut to Hold at Bank Vontobel; PT 34 Swiss francs (+)
* Acciona Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 125 euros
* Aviva Cut to Underperform at BNPP Exane; PT 420 pence
* CRH Cut to Neutral at Oddo BHF; PT $95
* DFS Furniture Cut to Hold at Berenberg
* Deutsche Post Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank (+)
* Diploma Cut to Hold at Jefferies; PT 3,950 pence
* Esker Cut to Hold at TP ICAP Midcap; PT 185 euros (+)
* Forterra Cut to Hold at Peel Hunt; PT 180 pence
* Generali Cut to Neutral at BNPP Exane; PT 24 euros
* Legal & General Cut to Neutral at BNPP Exane; PT 270 pence
* Munich Re Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 460 euros (+)
* NIBE Industrier Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 52 kronor
* Patrimoine et Commerce Cut to Neutral at Invest Securities SA (+)
* Rational Cut to Sell at Hauck & Aufhaeuser; PT 710 euros (+)
* Swiss Re Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 127 Swiss francs (+)
* Volvo Cut to Hold at Nordea

>>> Initiation
* Akzo Nobel Reinstated Sell at Goldman; PT 63 euros
* Arkema Reinstated Neutral at Goldman; PT 98 euros
* BASF Reinstated Neutral at Goldman; PT 53 euros
* Clariant Reinstated Neutral at Goldman; PT 13 Swiss francs
* Croda Reinstated Neutral at Goldman; PT 5,100 pence
* Elia Group Rated New Overweight at Barclays; PT 120 euros
* Evonik Reinstated Neutral at Goldman; PT 18.20 euros
* hVIVO plc Rated New Buy at Peel Hunt; PT 36 pence
* Standard Chartered Rated New Accumulate at Guotai Junan Sec (+)

>>> Call
* AO World Raises Outlook Amid ‘Impressive Turnaround’ : Jefferies (+)
* DHL Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank as Macro Risks Cloud Outlook (+)
* Diploma Cut to Hold at Jefferies After Post-M&A Stock Gains
* Goldman Strategists Say S&P 500 is Expensive But Can Rise More
* HUTCHMED China Rated New Buy at GF Securities; PT 409.37 pence (+)
* JPMorgan Says Crowded Stocks Sow Risk of ‘Out-of-the-Blue’ Shock
* Legrand Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley on Growth Drivers
* RBC’s Calvasina Raises S&P 500 Target on Economic Growth Outlook
* Soitec’s 2025 Outlook is Far Below Expectations: Morgan Stanley
* Solvay May Reach Upper End of 2024 Ebitda Target, Berenberg Says (+)