Investec downgrades HSBC to 'sell'

Investec downgraded its recommendation on HSBC stock to 'sell', telling clients that prospects for a "substantial" share buy-back were already in the price and its valuation was now stretched.

That did not mean that the lender had not made genuine progress.

Indeed, the broker's Ian Gordon believed 2017 would mark a "trough" year.

"It would be churlish not to acknowledge a number of areas of genuine improvement. We believe that after a decade of decline, HSBC is finally showing genuine ambition to expand its balance sheet, (+1% in Q1 2017), albeit it still appears over-dependent on Hong Kong, which contributed 52% of group PBT in Q1 2017," Gordon said.

However, the scale and pace of recovery might yet underwhelm the market, he said.

Neither did Gordon believe that HSBC's target for return on equity of 10% could be realistically achieved before 2020.

HSBC's dividend was "rock-solid", Gordon said, but explained that the prospective dividend yield of 5.7% for 2018/19 was not especially remarkable within the broader sector context.

Instead, Gordon told clients Barclays was the only large-cap UK lender offering "material share price upside" on a 12-month view.

He also recommended investors pay increased attention on opportunities within the challenger bank area - notably Virgin Money, Aldermore and OneSavings, all of which were rated 'buy'.

Despite all of the above, Gordon kept his target price of 640.0p in place.