Barclays downgrades Moneysupermarket, sees more upside elsewhere

Barclays downgraded its stance on Moneysupermarket on Tuesday to ‘equalweight’ from ‘overweight’ and slashed the price target to 220p from 260p as it argued there was more upside elsewhere.

The bank said it still sees reasons to be positive on the shares. The CEO is making operational improvements, Travel and Money should trade well this year and the stock still looks cheap, with reported private equity interest protecting the downside, it said.

"However, in the last six months the stock has outperformed the European Internet sector, given its 'value' characteristics," Barclays said. As a result, it now sees more upside on several other ‘overweight’ stocks.

"More specifically, we want to be clear: this is not a call on Q1," it said. "More that, with Energy likely to be very weak for some time and Money and Travel widely expected to rebound, we think the key this year is whether Insurance can get back to growth whilst holding gross margin gains.

"If yes, we see a catalyst to argue for 'value'; if not, a debate on a 'value trap'. We believe market share can improve in Insurance, but we lack confidence it won't be offset by weak end-markets. We don't have enough conviction to 'pound the table' as an OW, hence we move to EW."

At 0945 BST, the shares were down 4.1% at 181.40p.