BUREAU VERITAS : Morgan Stanley upgrades recommendation to 'overweight
January 12, 2024 at 10:02 am EST
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On Friday, Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation on Bureau Veritas shares to "overweight", from "in-line weighting", with a price target raised from $27.5 to $28.5.
In a study devoted to the professional services sector, the broker notes that the inspection and certification specialist's share price fell last year, despite an improvement in organic growth.
The broker attributes this decline to a business mix considered less buoyant, and to an unfavorable currency effect.
However, it expects the Group's next investor day, scheduled for March 20, to act as a catalyst, with the presentation of new medium-term targets.
With the stock now trading at a PER 2024 of around 17x, despite expected organic growth of 5%, a solid balance sheet and upside potential of over 25% compared with our target price, we are upgrading our recommendation to 'Overweight'," concludes the professional.
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Bureau Veritas SA is No. 1 worldwide in providing compliance evaluation and certification services applied to the quality, safety, health, environment and social responsibility fields. The group's activity consists of inspecting, analyzing, auditing, and certifying products, assets (buildings, industrial infrastructures, equipment, ships, etc.) and management systems (primarily ISO standards) compared to regulatory or volunteering reference standards. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- industry and infrastructures (80.2%): analysis and control of hygiene, safety and environment, inspection and certification of industrial equipment, verification of construction compliance, certification of management systems,
- consumer goods (12.1%);
- marine (7.7%): inspection and classification of ships.
At the end of 2023, the group owns a network of nearly 1,600 offices and laboratories worldwide.
BUREAU VERITAS SA 
