Europe's utilities have room to grow, Barclays says; ups Engie, cuts E.ON and Snam

Barclays says European utilities have significant upside potential despite being one of the best-performing sectors, and points to integrated players as the biggest winners

It upgrades France's Engie ENGIE.PA to "overweight" from "equal weight", increasing its PT by 16%, based on strong catalysts and significant discount to peers

"We now see a compelling investment case for Engie," it says

It downgrades German energy company E.ON EONGn.DE and Italian gas network operator Snam SRG.MI to "equal weight" from "overweight" after significant share price outperformance

Its preferred stocks among integrated utilities are Enel ENEI.MI, Endesa ELE.MC, SSE SSE.L, Engie and Veolia VIE.PA

It prefers National Grid NG.L, Elia ELI.BR, Redeia REDE.MC and Pennon PNN.L in regulated, Drax DRX.L in generators, and RWE RWEG.DE and Grenergy GREG.MC in renewables