(Boursier.com) — No third week of increases for the Paris market but a balance sheet which remains clearly positive at the start of 2023. Over the last five sessions, the CAC40 has slightly consolidated by 0.39% to 6,996 points this Friday evening. The index has thus maintained an 8% gain since January 1. Investors remain convinced of a relatively rapid “pivot” of the major central banks after the signs of moderation in inflation. And this despite the repeated call for caution from the world’s big moneymakers at the Davos Forum.
The latest comments from Fed officials signaled that the Federal Reserve was not yet ready to ease off or “pivot”, still too preoccupied with inflation. In the same spirit, Christine Lagarde and Klaas Knot warned, on the European side, that investors were undoubtedly going quickly to work in their monetary anticipations.
On the oil market, crude continued to rise with a barrel of Brent gaining 1.8%, around $86.8 this Friday evening. On the currency market, the dollar index is close to 102 pts while the euro confirms its solidity against the greenback, around $1.082 between banks. Bitcoin has confirmed its resurgence: the queen of cryptos is trading close to $21,200 on Coindesk.
On the securities side, Ubisoft remained penalized by its last warning, Fnac Darty suffered after having postponed its financial objectives by one year, Atos suffered releases after its excellent start to the stock market year, while Virbac’s results were welcomed .
VALUES
* CGG jumped almost 10%. In addition to the rise in the price of black gold, the oil services group benefited from a rating from SocGen which raised its opinion on the value to ‘buy’ with an adjusted target from 0.91 to 0.92 euro.
* Dassault Aviation takes 8.2% with Thales (+6.6%). President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday that an envelope of 413 billion euros would be allocated to the French army budget for the period 2024-2030, against 295 MdsE between 2019 and 2025. The 2019-2025 budget had been established for reinforce the capacities of the army after a chronic underinvestment during the previous decades, indicated the head of state during a speech on the air base of Mont-de-Marsan dedicated to his wishes to the army . He called the new 2024-2030 budget a “transformation” plan to adapt the military to the possibility of intense conflict, a scenario reinforced by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
* Vallourec gain 7%. The group recently won major orders from LLOG Exploration Offshore, one of the largest private exploration and production companies in the United States, for the delivery of 25,000 tons of line pipe as part of the Salamanca deepwater development off the US Gulf Coast. The Salamanca development is based on a floating production unit created from the refurbishment of a previously decommissioned production facility, with a planned capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil and over 1 million m3 of gas natural per day.
* Air France-KLM wins 6.8%. The company informed the government that it would not participate in the bidding process for the acquisition of a stake in the carrier ITA. Although still ‘neutral’ on the issue, JP Morgan has also raised its target from 1.30 to 1.55 euro. The bank sees room for an increase in profits for European airlines “to kick off 2023”, stressing that a positive environment seems to prevail in the short term. Oddo BHF reiterated its ‘neutral’ opinion (high indebtedness, optimistic FCF consensus) with a target raised from 1.3 to 1.65 euros.
* Virbac jumped 6.7%. The Côte d’Azur company reported annual revenue of almost 1.22 billion euros, up +14.3% (+9.6% excluding currency effects), and raised its 2022 targets “The exceptional performance of the last quarter, unexpected in a sharply slowing market, allows us to slightly exceed the top of our turnover range in 2022”, underlines Virbac. The group now anticipates a current operating margin in 2022 (before amortization of assets resulting from acquisitions) of around 15% at constant exchange rates (between 14% and 15% previously) and a deleveraging of around 35 ME excluding dividends, at scope and constant exchange rates (30 ME previously). For 2023, Virbac confirmed its current operating margin forecast of between 13% and 14% at constant exchange rates, with revenue growth at constant rates and scope expected between 4% and 6%.
* Technip Energies advance of 6%. Leader of a joint venture with Samsung Engineering and Tecnimont (TST JV), the French group has won a pre-construction services contract (PCSA) for the onshore infrastructure of the Hail & Ghasha gas development project in Abu Dhabi, Emirates United Arabs.
Conversely, * Atos dropped by 8.9%, after rising sharply during the first two weeks of the year. The ESN had indeed started the new financial year on a high note with a title which posted a gain of approximately 43% over the first fortnight. The group has therefore logically suffered profit taking in recent days.
* Ubisoft drop of 7.6%. The video game publisher remained weighed down by its recent warning. The title also suffered the wrath of HSBC which lowered its recommendation to ‘hold’ while cutting its target from 48 to 21 euros. Expectations of Ubisoft were ‘reset’ following the company’s profit warning last week, but its profits still appear to be under threat from further game delays and cancellations, HSBC claims. Ubisoft’s discount reflects its game pipeline, execution risks and core titles that are less popular than other studios, the analyst said.
* Fnac-Darty loses 7.2% after his ‘warning’. In a less buoyant environment, marked by a high level of inflation and tensions on purchasing power, the group reported deteriorated preliminary results for 2022 and decided to postpone its free cash flow target for one year. operational. “After generating free cash flow from operations of 170 ME in 2021 and given the level of free cash flow from operations of approximately -30 ME in 2022, the Group considers it unlikely to achieve its free cash flow objective. cumulative operating income of approximately €500 million over the 2021-2023 period. Consequently, the Group is extending this same objective over the 2021-2024 period”. Fnac Darty nevertheless maintained its ambition to generate free operating cash flow of at least €240 million on an annual basis from 2025.
* Faurecia fell 6.1%, as Jefferies downgraded the equipment supplier to ‘underperform’ and reduced its target from 22 to just 15 euros in an automotive market that remains in transition.
* Engie makes 6%. The short flow on the energy group is to be linked to a rating from BofA Global Research which lowered its recommendation to ‘underperform’. The bank says the risk-reward ratio is now “significantly on the downside due to recent adverse regulatory interventions”. BofA believes it is unlikely that full-year profit guidance will be raised due to the negative impact of nuclear provisions in Belgium and energy price caps in France. The target is set at 12 euros.