Berenberg upgrades Sabre Insurance to 'buy'

Berenberg upgraded Sabre Insurance on Friday to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and hiked the price target to 153p from 93p following an update earlier in the week.

"Sabre still has a lot of work to do to return to its glory days; moreover, it also reported a 4.8% policy count decline in its core motor book during the first four months of 2023," it said.

"That said, we now believe market pricing has risen sufficiently to allow Sabre to start growing again in 2023."

Berenberg flagged that first-half profitability will be weak but said the second half should be much stronger and thereafter the company should trend back towards a low-80s combined ratio.

"We remain below consensus on earnings per share, which is a risk, but it is a much smaller gap than before, and importantly we are now in line on combined ratio estimates in 2024 and 2025.

"In addition, we think the direction of profitability over the next 24 months will be positive as Sabre is highly geared to the hardening price environment in UK motor insurance."