Broker tips: Haleon, Informa

(Sharecast News) - Deutsche Bank upgraded Haleon to 'hold' from 'sell' on Friday but cut its price target on the stock to 310p from 320p after the consumer healthcare company's results a day earlier.

The bank said weakness in second-half organic growth was the culmination of structural industry changes and poor strategic and operational execution.

"There are 'one-offs' in the weaker growth but the base line of performance in our view is not strong enough," it said. "We believe that Haleon needs a strategic reset. From our perspective, the company has too much of what consumers need and not enough of what they want."

DB said the strategic decisions by the company to focus on EBIT growth and missing the growth of categories like hydration have been missteps and what would likely be more effective was "a step up the cadence of innovation and perhaps more focus on consumer and less on health".

Haleon shares tumbled on Thursday after it cut its full-year organic revenue growth guidance, pointing to soft third-quarter cold and flu sales. The company said it now expects 2026 organic revenue growth of around 2.5%, down from previous guidance of 3% to 5%. In the three months to September end, organic revenue growth was 2.6%, below the company's expectations, with price up 2.1% and volume/mix up 0.5%.

The maker of Sensodyne and Panadol hailed continued strength in Oral Health - which saw an 8.8% rise in organic revenue to £930m - but said its performance was held back by soft cold and flu consumption, which led to lower orders in North America.

Analysts at Berenberg trimmed their target price on Informa from 1,040p to 1,005p on Friday as the broker rebased forecasts following the group's ninemonth trading update and the rescheduling of major Saudi events.

Berenberg said it had reduced its FY26 and FY27 EPS estimates by 2% to 4%, reflecting no contribution from Saudi Arabia for the remainder of FY26 and a more cautious stance on India, Middle East and Africa operations next year amid weaker attendance and booking trends.

Berenberg noted that Informa's shares trade on a twoyear forward price-to-earnings ratio of 14.4x for FY26/27, falling to 12.4x on FY27/28 estimates, which it viewed as attractive. It added that a potential disposal of Taylor & Francis would leave Informa with a cleaner equity story and higher earnings growth supported by buybacks.

In divisional terms, B2B live events delivered 8% underlying growth, ahead of the 7% guidance, with strength across the Americas, Europe, ASEAN and IMEA excluding Saudi Arabia. Academic markets grew 4% on an underlying basis, in line with consensus, while Informa TechTarget declined 1.6% yearonyear. It also said IMEA rescheduling had been positive, with more than $530m traded yeartodate and $230m since H1.

Informa cut its underlying revenue guidance from roughly 6% to approximately 3% after converting Global Health Exhibition into a virtual event and deferring Cityscape Global, removing around $110m of revenues, plus a further $60m from smaller shows. However, it maintained guidance for doubledigit underlying EPS growth, supported by cost savings and portfolio strength.