NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) - According to the US analyst firm Bernstein Research, it is time to take a more positive view of the European consumer goods sector. The valuation makes it difficult to issue negative recommendations for individual stocks such as Henkel, wrote analyst Bruno Monteyne in a study published on Tuesday.

He therefore upgraded the Düsseldorf-based company's shares from "underperform" to "market perform" and raised the target price from 61 to 80 euros. The expert was also more optimistic about Beiersdorf. He raised the price target for the Hamburg-based company's shares from 130 to 135 euros and left the rating at "market perform".

The sector has performed very poorly over the past twelve months, Monteyne stated. But all the bad news has now been priced in and better times are in sight. In this respect, the relatively weak performance during this period is exaggerated and the sector now appears attractive in terms of valuation. Given the current valuations, some funds would only have to start closing their underweight positions for the below-average performance to end.

The analyst believes above all in the ability of weaker companies to restore their profitability under the current economic conditions. His favorites are the shares of Haleon, Lindt and L'Oreal.

In line with the "Market-Perform" rating, the analysts at Bernstein Research expect the share price to outperform or underperform the MSCI Pan Europe Index by up to 15 percentage points over the next twelve months./edh/tih/jha/

Analyzing institute Bernstein.

Publication of the original study: 20.05.2024 / 21:29 / UTC First dissemination of the original study: 21.05.2024 / 04:00 / UTC