Analyst Coverage... CIBC’s Krista Friesen raised her Martinrea International Inc. target to $10.50 from $9.75 with a “neutral” rating. Others making changes include: BMO’s Peter Sklar to $11 from $9 with a “market perform” rating. Scotia’s Mark Neville to $14 from $13 with a “sector perform” rating and Raymond James’ Michael Glen to $12 from $11 with a “market perform” rating The average is $13.81.
“We found the quarter to be inherently stronger than the EPS level indicates as both North American and European operations performed notably better than our projections in terms of operating earnings,” said Mr. Sklar. “However, earnings were suppressed by COVID lockdowns in China (Shanghai and in other areas), which caused significant disruption to operations and results. Notwithstanding the favourable earnings outlook for 2023, our thesis is that we find auto parts stocks generally underperform during periods of Fed tightening.”