RBC Capital upgrades Close Brothers to 'outperform', shares surge

Close Brothers surged on Thursday as RBC Capital Markets upgraded the shares to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’ and hiked the price target to 620p from 375p, citing a number of potential catalysts.

The bank argued that whether you are looking at historical or sector-relative valuation, Close Brothers shares screen as cheap.

It noted that the shares have underperformed the sector by around 55% year-to-date.

RBC said the bad news around the Financial Conduct Authority’s review of motor finance is now well embedded into consensus and net interest margin and loan growth assumptions are sensible.

"Therefore, we currently see asymmetric risk to the upside, as the market continues to myopically focus on capital, while we see a number of potential catalysts including: i) a softening of Basel 3.1; ii) a Novitas settlement; iii) IRB approval," it said.

"Structurally, it is helpful that CBG's NIM is relatively agnostic to a falling rate environment."

At 1000 BST, the shares were up 8.9% at 530.90p.