Liberum raises target price on LondonMetric

Analysts at Liberum raised their target price on British property company LondonMetric from 180.0p to 210.0p on Tuesday, stating the group's valuation was supported by a 4.0% dividend yield.

Liberum highlighted that over the last three years, LondonMetric has, "with prescience", shifted exposure away from out-of-favour retail assets towards structurally-growing distribution assets, which now made up roughly 70% of its portfolio.

While Liberum noted that mix shift had led to property return outperformance versus the benchmark, it said that the company's industrial property exposure wasn't "pure" and that it still expects to see around about a quarter of portfolio values move backwards during the current year.

Furthermore, while the analysts raised their target price on the FTSE 250-listed group's stock, with the shares at a 28% premium to spot net asset value, they believed that the benefits of a roughly 4% dividend per share yield were already priced in.

Hence, they reiterated their 'hold' rating on LondonMetric's shares.

Liberum stated it was still looking for "other, cleaner ways" to play the industrial real estate sector.