Lots of hope.
Globe says "gradual" growth predicted for Lion Electric
The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Aug. 4, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Rupert Merer's recommendation for Lion Electric has fallen from "outperform" to "sector perform." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Merer's $2.75 (U.S.) share target sits substantially below the $4.07 average share target of analysts. Mr. Merer issued his downgrade after the company posted "mixed" quarterly results that featured lower-than-anticipated production but a higher average sale price. The Globe says Mr. Merer predicts growth for Lion Electric "will be gradual as end markets take shape." Mr. Merer says in a note: "LEV trades at a discount relative to peers, at 1.3 times EV/sales on our 2024E (FY2) versus peers at 1.5 times on average. However, peers trade in a wide range from 0.3 times to 5.7 times, with the smaller companies typically trading below one times sales. In the near term, our forecasts for LEV remain heavily weighted to sales of buses (versus peers that have more exposure to truck markets), which is an attractive niche that could allow LEV to scale up with lower cash burn than most of the peer group. ... We increased our target multiple on LEV to reflect the higher average in the peer group."