Berenberg raises target price on SSE

(Sharecast News) - Analysts at Berenberg lifted their target price for energy provider SSE from 2,800p to 2,980p on Thursday, reiterating the stock as their top sector pick and arguing that the market was still failing to reflect the firm's "unprecedented, extended and highly visible" longduration growth opportunity.

Berenberg said confidence in SSE's £33bn 2026A-30E investment plan remained strong, noting that around 80% relates to regulated networks. It highlighted that 11 major electricitytransmission projects - all of which were networkessential and governmentbacked - accounted for 75% of SSE's RIIOT3 totex, with fasttracked approvals and a fully secured supply chain already in place.

The German bank described RIIOT3 as a "landmark inflection", with SSE's £29bn totex dwarfing the £6bn invested under RIIOT2. Regulated asset value rose 2.5x to £9bn over RIIOT2 and was expected to quadruple to £35bn by 2030, making SSE Europe's fastestgrowing transmission operator - underpinning the broker's forecast 11% earnings per share compound annual growth rate from 2025/26 to 2030/31, with scope for highsingledigit growth into the 2030s.

Beyond 2030, Berenberg noted that the National Energy System Operator has already identified seven additional major projects linked to SSE's network, representing roughly £17bn of potential further capex, with more likely as the RIIOED3 framework is finalised.

Updating its model, the broker raised EPS forecasts by 4%, 5% and 7% for 2027, 2028 and 2029, respectively.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com