Canaccord Genuity raises target price on Equals Group

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity hiked their target price on diversified financials outfit Equals Group from 57.0p to 98.0p on Tuesday following the firm's recently published interim results.

Canaccord, which stood by its 'buy' rating on the stock, stated the strength of Equals' first-half results, bolstered by the acceleration of activity in the third quarter, gave it the confidence to upgrade its assumptions.

"We now expect revenue to be 6% higher than our prior forecast in CY21E and 5% above in CY22E. Positive operational gearing implies that our EPS forecasts are upgraded by 8% in each year," said Canaccord.

The Canadian bank added Equals' outlook was "strong" and underpinned by its investments in technology in previous years, which it said were now bearing fruit.

"We roll forward our target date to CY22E and now assign a 28.9x P/E multiple (previous: 28.6x CY21E) to our upgraded EPS forecast. The multiple is a 25% discount to its closest peer (38.5x CY22E P/E)," said Canaccord.

"We assign the discount since EQLS remains in a recovery phase, although is making strong progress particularly given the Q3'21 result."