Citi stays at neutral for CCH, cites lower multiple for Russia profits

Analysts at Citi kept their recommendation for shares of Coca-Cola HBC at 'neutral'.

To back up their decision, they pointed to ongoing DD cost-of-goods sold pressures and "likely" slower volume growth in the 2023 financial year.

Combined, those two factors meant that their earnings per share estimates for FY 2023 were revised up by 9%.

Citi did however also bump up its FY 2022 EPS estimates by about 13%.

Furthermore, the shares were not cheap, despite trading at a 25% discount to the wider consumer staples sector, the broker said.

That was due to the 12% of the bottler's earnings that flowed from Russia which meant that a lower multiple should be applied to the same and suggested that "overall upside is more limited".