Canaccord starts Future at 'sell', says 'all good things must come to an end'

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity initiated coverage of Future with a 'sell' recommendation and 1,153.0p target price.

"Future has been a stock market darling for a decade; however, we believe all good things must come to an end," analyst Karl Burns said in a research note sent to clients.

In his judgement, the past decade's stock market darling was moving into a more "challenging" period, characterised by lower structural growth tailwinds, weaker traffic to key websites and a reduced pace of economic growth.

He was also anticipating a move to new categories and fewer mergers and acquisitions.

Furthermore, artificial Intelligence might remove the moat around the business, hitting prices and hence the outfit's valuation.

Burns also said that his estimates for the media outfit's profit before tax between 2023 and 2025 were 7-13% beneath the consensus.