FTSE 100 movers: Landsec rises; St James's Place hit by downgrade
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 19 Oct 2020
(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 5,899.10 in afternoon trade on Monday.
St James's Place was in the red after a downgrade to 'equalweight' from 'overweight' at Barclays, which cut the price target to 1,075p from 1,224p and pointed to limited upside. Barclays said the past two years have seen earnings revisions and declining sales efficiencies in STJ's advisory network.
"While some of this could be explained by political uncertainty, we believe it may be due to STJ's scale and a normalisation in the retirement market.
"Given the stock has historically been priced for perfection, a nearly 50% premium to peers, the concern is that the stock is at risk of a longer term de-rating as its growth approaches terminal velocity and STJ's earnings profile becomes increasingly cyclical."
On the upside, Land Securities was among the risers after saying it plans to refocus on cities and mixed-use developments as it exits subscale sectors such as hotels and retail parks.
Updating investors and analysts at its latest capital markets day, Landsec said it had identified four strategic priorities going forward.
The firm said it would seek to optimise its core central London business; "re-imagine" its retail business; realise and recycle capital from hotels, leisure and retail parks; and seek enhanced returns through "significant" investment in mixed-use urban opportunities in London and potentially other major UK cities.
FTSE 100 - Risers
British Land Company (BLND) 363.70p 1.88%
Rightmove (RMV) 674.60p 1.41%
Homeserve (HSV) 1,221.00p 1.41%
Glencore (GLEN) 165.30p 1.06%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 808.00p 1.05%
Avast (AVST) 530.00p 1.05%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 530.40p 0.99%
Next (NXT) 6,088.00p 0.93%
Aveva Group (AVV) 4,551.00p 0.91%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,188.50p 0.85%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,280.50p -2.62%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,364.00p -2.56%
Pennon Group (PNN) 1,003.50p -2.34%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 528.00p -2.08%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,588.50p -2.04%
St James's Place (STJ) 925.80p -2.01%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 1,045.50p -1.88%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 872.00p -1.85%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 7,220.00p -1.82%
DCC (DCC) 5,254.00p -1.76%
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