JPMorgan upgrades Intermediate Capital Group to 'overweight'

(Sharecast News) - JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded Intermediate Capital Group on Tuesday to 'overweight' from 'neutral' and lifted the price target to 1,882p from 1,738p as it said it was well positioned for earnings growth. The bank said ICG surprised it positively last week, delivering a better-than-expected deployment in its private debt funds as well as better-than-expected net investment returns on its balance sheet portfolio.

"In addition, ICG has several new strategies on the pipeline, which we have now incorporated in our fund by fund detailed model," it said.

JPM said that even though the shares are around 20% higher than when it initially relaunched its recommendation in March, it believes the still low price-to-earnings multiple, as well as earnings upgrades - mainly due to better net investment returns but also higher expected FMC earnings - leave more room for outperformance.

JPM lifted its pre-tax profit estimates by 36% in FY24E, 7% in FY25E, 15% in FY26E and 23% in FY27E.

At 0955 GMT, the shares were up 2.2% at 1,565p.