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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Axa Cut To Equal-weight By Morgan Stanley
By Steve Goldstein
MarketWatch Pulse
LONDON -- Axa was cut to equal-weight from overweight by Morgan Stanley, which said there's better risk/reward profiles elsewhere even though the Axa franchise remains attractive, the Axa Asia-Pacific offer makes strategic sense and the 2 billion euro rights issue improves solvency and leverage. The brokerage prefers Zurich Financial and Aegon . In the U.K., it upped Standard Life to equal-weight from underweight because of 18% upside, though it's wary of Standard Life's high multiple to IFRS earnings. It prefers asset managers that trade on lower price-to-earnings multiples like Schroders .
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