JPMorgan places Hargreaves Lansdown on ‘negative catalyst watch’, slashes PT

JPMorgan Cazenove cut its price target on Hargreaves Lansdown on Thursday and placed the shares on "negative catalyst watch" ahead of the full-year results next month.

The bank slashed its price target to 770p form 1,060p as it said Hargreaves Lansdown’s growth and cost targets look increasingly unachievable in the current macroeconomic backdrop. It also noted that other D2C platforms have already reported a slowdown in activity in the second quarter.

"Apptopia data suggests poor customer acquisition in May and June at HL, and possibly weak net new business (NNB) figures," it said.

JPM said HL’s target of NNB of 10%/£20bn in FY26 looked ambitious even before the worsening of the macroeconomic environment. In 4Q, Apptopia data indicates a 40% year-on-year decline in HL mobile app downloads, a proxy for customer acquisition and NNB.

"Whilst we think that Active Savings flows will accelerate, this will be more than offset by the risk of a decline in shares revenues, lower NNB and customer acquisition," it said.