Earlier today, it was announced that Nordea Markets has downgraded Atlantic Sapphire and at the same time cut the price target by 60 per cent. Several brokerages have now followed.
Both Pareto Securities and Kepler Cheuvreux have downgraded Atlantic Sapphire from buy to hold, reports TDN Direkt. Both estimates and price targets are pared down.
Lower
“We are also downgrading the estimates in the longer term, and expect that the escalation of volumes will be slower with lower margins”, wrote Pareto, which lowered the price target to NOK 50 per share, from 115.
Kepler Cheuvreux has also lowered the price target, to NOK 60 from NOK 107.
“The problem at this time, however, is that stable production, with good volume development and stable costs, is more difficult to achieve in the medium term,” wrote Kepler.
Arctic Securities has also downgraded from buy to hold and cut price targets from NOK 120 to NOK 60, according to Bloomberg News. As recently as April, Arctic had a price target of NOK 175 per share.
Fall
On Friday, SEB and DNB Markets cut the price target to NOK 44 per share and NOK 77 per share from NOK 72 per share and NOK 120 per share, respectively. SEB has a sell recommendation and DNB Markets has a buy recommendation, according to Dagens Næringsliv.
After a brutal price drop on Friday, down 33 per cent, Atlantic Sapphire’s share price is further down today – to 49.50 kroner. The share price is down by two thirds from the peak at the end of January.
Of the six listed land-based salmon farmers, only one company has risen in value in the year to date. The exception is Salmon Evolution, which has gained 26 per cent.
