BUZZ-Top of the Street: BAT, Direct Line, Givaudan, LVMH, Legrand, Nemetschek

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:

** UBS raises British American Tobacco BATS.L to "buy" from "neutral" as it expects BAT's Velo nicotine pouches to accelerate New Categories' sales growth; enabling the group to deliver its 2026 outlook

** UBS cuts British motor insurer Direct Line DLGD.L to "neutral" from "buy" seeing that the Aviva offer crystallizes the value in Direct Line

** J.P. Morgan raises Swiss fragrance and flavour maker Givaudan GIVN.S to "overweight" from "neutral" believing the shares offer an opportunity for upside as the market should rate its compounding top-line, positive EPS momentum and emerging balance sheet optionality

** Morgan Stanley raises French luxury goods giant LVMH LVMH.PA to "overweight" from "equal weight" saying that while LVMH should face a number of challenges in 2025, it's prospects have materially improved in recent weeks

** Jefferies downgrades French electrical and digital building infrastructure group Legrand LEGD.PA to "underperform" from "hold" as analysts point to the company's lower organic growth and lack of margin expansion vs peers

** Goldman Sachs raises German software developer Nemetschek NEKG.DE to "buy" from "neutral" seeing a positive inflection in the group's organic growth profile

(*Analyst rankings from Thomson Reuters StarMine. The scale is from 1-star to 5-star with 5 being the best. Analysts are ranked on earnings accuracy as well as relative performance of recommendations over trailing 12-month & 24-month periods.)