Broker tips: Admiral, ICG, Unite, Sabre Insurance, Computacenter

(Sharecast News) - RBC Capital Markets upgraded Admiral to 'outperform' from 'sector perform' on Friday and lifted its price target on the stock to 3,560p from 3,100p after the insurer's full-year results.

The Canadian bank said it was particularly encouraged by the Admiral's willingness to provide a multi-year view of profits and earnings per share growth, which was something the company has not done in the past.

"While made necessary by near-term headwinds to UK Motor profit growth, good results outside of UK Motor supported a new target to double those profits by 2028," it noted.

RBC said it continues to assume only a modest cyclical improvement in UK Motor profits, but noted that momentum should improve through the year.

"On double-digit increases to EPS, helped by a new buyback, we raise our target EPS multiple from 13x to 14x, and our recommendation to outperform," it said.

Analysts at Berenberg raised their target price on private equity fim ICG from 2,600p to 2,800p on Friday, stating there were "no signs of a bubble here, just opportunity".

Berenberg noted that while there was "a lot of negative noise in the press" about the private capital market at present, it believes that ICG has been taking market share in the right corners of "this vast and attractive market".

The German bank also said ICG has been "unfairly caught up in the negative read across" from the US, a market in which the firm has been cautious about deploying capital.

"In valuing ICG, we use a sum-of-the-parts methodology. We use a multiples-based approach in valuing FRE and PRE and a NAV multiple to value the balance sheet. On our estimates, the current share price implies a CY26 FRE multiple of just 2x, which is just too low," said Berenberg, which reiterated its 'buy' rating on the stock.

"We believe that a three-year EPS CAGR of 7% to FY28 is attractive in its own right; however, given that ICG is approaching a net cash position, it also has the option to return significant cash to shareholders."

Stifel has slashed its target price for student housing group Unite from 600p to 485p and reiterated its 'hold' rating on the stock, saying that macro developments holding back occupancy levels were unlikely to ease anytime soon.

The neutral rating comes despite the stock's significant underperformance over the past six months - falling 30% compared with the EPRA UK Index up 6% - leaving it at a 50% discount to net tangible assets following a series of downgrade events.

"A number of self-help measures are being employed: a �100m share buyback, canceling of off-campus projects, and an accelerated disposal programme. These are positive, in our view, but solving the occupancy issue is key," Stifel said.

The bigger problems, according to the broker, were declining numbers of overseas students, a greater proportion of UK students choosing to live at home, and universities negotiating reduced term nominations agreements - all of which "may take time to solve".

"Short of using pricing as a lever (which could be equally damaging), we think the occupancy problem could persist until market supply adjusts and Unite's own portfolio is optimally positioned," Stifel added.

Jefferies upgraded Sabre Insurance to 'hold' from 'underperform' and raised its price target on the stock to 152p from 110p, noting that the firm had "successfully defended margins" while returning to growth.

Jefferies said Sabre's H2 performance pointed to "better earnings resilience" than it had initially thought, and noted that an impending market price inflection, also mentioned by peers, was a near-term tailwind.

"This prompts us to upgrade our rating to hold, as we remain cautious about longer-term execution risk with regard to the 2030 target."

JPMorgan reiterated its 'overweight' stance on Computacenter on Friday as it said the share price pullback on capex concerns provided an attractive entry point.

The broker said that with the shares now down 11% from 52-week highs, an "attractive entry opportunity" had emerged for investment into a "demonstrable AI winner", with Computacenter's US business benefitting directly from AI infrastructure capex.

"We discussed the results and outlook with a number of investors yesterday and believe that concerns around the free cash flow cuts are overdone," it said. "In our view, we think Computacenter has earned the right to allocate incremental growth capex (equivalent to less than 2% of market cap) to its critical US market - which grew EBIT 88% YoY cc through FY25."

JPM said it was surprised the market has not looked as favourably upon this dynamic at initial blush, though it also acknowledged that expectations were somewhat elevated coming into the release, given the recent beat and raise pre-release.

"This combination of higher expectations and ultimately an unexpected FCF cut weighed on the shares yesterday," it said. "But fundamentally, we think growth capex into the US market (which is supply-constrained and the no.1 growth driver for Computacenter currently) makes strategic sense, given the circa �5bn order book and margin-accretive AI-driven growth on offer."