Liberum upgrades Easyjet to 'buy' on self-help actions, hikes target price

Analysts at Liberum hiked their target price for shares of Easyjet and upgraded their recommendation from 'hold' to 'buy' on the back of the budget airline's moves to rein in non-fuel costs.

The self-help measures adopted by the carrier to stave off the pandemic's effects meant that it had addressed the broker's concerns about non-fuel costs and poor free cash flow generation.

Meanwhile, "clear evidence" of pent-up demand building meant that Easyjet did not need to wait for a vaccine to be rolled-out to rebuild traffic.

So while travel restrictions imposed by governments remained the largest brake on demand and short-term challenges remained, "the long-term risks are diminishing."

In turn, the analysts lifted their target price for the stock from 500.0p to 1,300.0p.