Jefferies downgrades Balfour Beatty on 'diminished upside'

"Construction sites continue to reopen and the strong US/UK order book should help reassure on the near-term outlook," the bank said, adding that comments at the company’s first-half results in August will be key for FY21/22 earnings.

"We lower our estimates slightly to reflect FX changes, while our underlying estimates remain largely unchanged," Jefferies. "However, with limited upside to our price target on circa 15x price-to-earnings 2020 estimates, we downgrade to hold."

Jefferies said that while construction sites are reopening, productivity concerns persist. It noted that in May, 83% of construction sites were open and said this should increase to more than 90% by the end of June, with disruption from availability of labour or materials set to diminish since the May update.

"However, we still forecast 1H20 group sales down 22% year-on-year and earnings down 30% with no disposals from the investment portfolio," it said.

At 0925 BST, the shares were down 3.4% at 251.20p.