Goldman Sachs raises ABF target price

Analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their target price on shares of Associated British Foods, pointing to the company's differentiated positioning and potential upside from its Click & Collect model to back up their case.

The investment bank also emphasised the fact that, unlike peers, higher input costs were already baked into its estimates for fiscal year 2017 gross margins.

Together with a roughly 10% rate of growth in space and a return to expansion for like-for-like sales to 1%, that would drive increases of about 13% in operating profits for each year between 2017 and 2021.

On the back of the above, Goldman marked its target on the shares up from 3,000p to 3,200p, while reiterating a 'buy' recommendation.

Ahead of the company's next trading update, scheduled for 6 July, Goldman cited two main risks investors should watch out for.

The first of those was strength in the pound, because 57% of the firm's sales originate form beyond the UK, followed by the risk of any further deterioration in the European clothing market which could drive a lower EBIT performance at ist Primark unit.