Berenberg lowers target price on Johnson Matthey

Analysts at Berenberg lowered their target on chemicals firm Johnson Matthey from 1,800.0p to 1,650.0p on Thursday but acknowledged management has avoided missteps and "righted the ship" following the announcement of the company's exit from battery materials.

The German bank, which has a 'hold' rating on the stock, stated that the firming of platinum group metals pricing and the build-out of the new energy pipeline in catalyst technologies were both helpful.

However, Berenberg also noted that prior to the huge changes wrought by the rise of electric vehicles, an environment characterised by profit warnings at larger European automotive makers of the kind seen recently at the likes of Volkswagen and Mercedes would not be one in which it believes shares would have performed well.

"The cuts to our EPS estimates reflect a c40-50-10 combination of FX, lower volumes and slightly lower prices in the Clean Air segment, and earlier divestment of value businesses than previously assumed. There is a small headwind from assumed lower volumes recycled in PGM services; we would guess consumers, in a higher interest rate environment, are holding on to cars for longer before scrapping. Shares trade on 6x 2025 EV/EBITDA," said Berenberg.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com