Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) made a host of initiations across the European apparel sector. Oddly, the number crunchers there appear to like the UK groups on its shopping list.
So, it has kicked off with ‘buy’ ratings on online pace-setters ASOS (LON:ASC) and Boohoo (LON:BOO) with price targets of £54 and £4 respectively.
It also backs for success the bricks and mortar chains of Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) and Next (LON:NXT), which it reckons are worth £1.95 and £92 respectively.
The only homegrown stock it wasn’t all-out positive on was AB Foods (LON:ABF), the owner of the Primark clothing group. It has initiated coverage on ABF with a ‘hold’ call and a £22 price target.
In a note to clients, Deutsche said: “We prefer online [to] offline, marketplace [to] mono-brand retail and believe platform monetisation is key for profit growth.
“We have created a structural framework supported by proprietary data from our DBdig team including analysing warehouse activity, social media analysis and consumer surveys.
“For shorter-term trends we predict quarterly sales based on warehouse activity as well as longer-term predictions for the global retailers based on sales-weighted GDP forecasts.”