LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - With Bakkavor's free cash flow growth looking set to be limited for the rest of the year, analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux cut their target price on the firm by 2.5% to 195p.
Kepler believes that 2018 will be a year of little FCF generation for Bakkavor, amid higher-than-expected capital expenditures.

Indeed, the lion's share of Bakkavor's £100m capex identified for its three larger expansion projects in the UK, US and China will fall in 2018, had left the broker slightly concerned about the firm's free cash flow in the short term.

"New capacity in China and the US will come on stream, but we do not expect much benefit on the bottom line yet," the broker said while axing its price target from 200p to 195p and reiterating its 'hold' rating on the stock.

As well, Kepler forecast Bakkavor would report modest growth in the UK, but still opted to trim its EBITDA estimate for the full-year by 1%, based on the cold weather seen across Europe in the first quarter and lower margin expectations for the firm's international business in the near-term.

Nevertheless, while the broker said Bakkavor's first half would likely be "uninspiring", it expects management to confirm that sales and profit momentum are likely to improve over the course of the second half of the trading year.

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