Berenberg downgrades Hargreaves Lansdown to 'hold', slashes target price

Berenberg noted that Hargreaves Lansdown's share price was down roughly 14% since its interim results on Tuesday due to a combination of lighter-than-expected net new business and earnings per share, alongside a suspension of special dividends and a higher cost trajectory than its analysts had predicted.

The German bank said it still thinks Hargreaves Lansdown's strategic plan to future-proof the business was "logical", that the group remains "favourably exposed" to UK retail wealth structural growth trends and that its first-half results likely drove a material reset of investor expectations.

However, Berenberg highlighted that it now struggles to find a near-term catalyst to drive outperformance, given increased outlook and execution uncertainty.

"As such, although HL trades at a discount to long-run consensus multiples, on circa 20x our full-year 2024 earnings per share, we downgrade to 'hold'," concluded the analysts.