Weekly Reports | 10:00 AM
Weekly update on stockbroker recommendation, target price, and earnings forecast changes.
By Mark Woodruff
The FNArena database tabulates the views of seven major Australian and international stockbrokers: Citi, Bell Potter, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, Morgans, Ord Minnett, and UBS.
For the purpose of broker rating correlation, Outperform and Overweight ratings are grouped as Buy, Neutral is grouped with Hold and Underperform and Underweight are grouped as Sell to provide a Buy/Hold/Sell (B/H/S) ratio.
Ratings, consensus target price and forecast earnings tables are published at the bottom of this report.
Summary
Period: Monday August 3 to Friday August 7, 2026
Total Upgrades: 2
Total Downgrades: 4
Net Ratings Breakdown: Buy 64.99%; Hold 28.23%; Sell 6.78%
For the week ending Friday, 7 August 2026, the first week of the August reporting season, the seven stockbrokers monitored daily by FNArena issued two ratings upgrades and four downgrades for individual ASX-listed companies.
The one fresh Buy rating for the week went to Fluence Corp, with Bell Potter rewarding the company for a successful operational turnaround. The same broker upgraded Fortescue to Neutral in response to a weakening share price.
UBS turned bearish on domestic supermarket operators, which explains two of the week's four downgrades. The other two downgrades follow yet another weak operational update by Endeavour Group and UBS responding to a rally in Guzman y Gomez shares.
As usual, FNArena will be keeping tabs during the season of all the ‘beats', 'misses', and 'in-line’ results.
Our Corporate Results Monitor: https://fnarena.com/index.php/2026/08/07/fnarena-corporate-results-monitor-07-08-2026/
While rises and falls in average earnings forecasts are broadly balanced in the tables below, the comparison is no longer like-for-like.
Some upward/downward revisions reflect brokers rolling their financial models forward to FY27 and beyond following the release of FY26 results.
Falls in average target prices were generally smaller than rises, with the only material increases being 13% for AMP and 8% for Neuren Pharmaceuticals.
As explained in the Results Monitor, AMP’s interim release positively surprised largely due to a further $150m share buyback, higher dividend guidance and fund flows into the North platform.
The fast-growing Chinese operations, already generating 22% of group profit, has become a major focus among analysts for AMP's outlook in future years.
Neuren Pharmaceuticals’ North American commercial partner Acadia Pharmaceuticals reported that second quarter Daybue net sales rose 30% year-on-year and 23% quarter-on-quarter to US$125m, generating US$13m in royalty income for Neuren, a rise of 34%.
Daybue is the brand name for trofinetide, a drug developed to treat Rett syndrome, a rare neurological disorder.
Acadia also lifted FY26 Daybue net sales guidance by 4% at the midpoint to US$480m-US$510m, implying to Macquarie around 5% higher Neuren royalty income of US$53m-US$56m.
The broker raised its target for Neuren by 20% to $23.00 after doubling its attributable valuation for the international segment to $8.60 from $4.30, reflecting greater certainty around rollout plans.
Fortescue is second on the week's ranking for negative change to average price target. After a strong FY26, cost inflation, increased capex, and the ongoing slow ramp-up of Iron Bridge are expected to drag on the company’s FY27 earnings and dividend: https://fnarena.com/index.php/2026/08/05/rising-costs-hit-fortescue-hard/
Uranium exposure Deep Yellow received the largest fall in consensus target (-5%) after Morgans lowered its target to $2.00 from $2.56 due to changed valuation assumptions by a new analyst covering the stock.
Morgans retained its Speculative Buy rating, noting management’s decision to defer the Tumas project in 2025 is increasingly being validated. Uranium contract prices are now materially stronger than when the project was postponed, supporting improved project economics and potential value at the time of a final investment decision (FID).
A FID is drawing closer as Tumas advances towards execution readiness, with engineering 79% complete, 76% of procurement tendered and site works progressing.
The award of $34m in civil and concrete contracts (announced on July 7) further reduces construction risk, Morgans noted, and supports the upcoming FID.
Deep Yellow is also placed second for negative change to earnings forecasts, below Coronado Global Resources.
Coronado delivered a strong June quarter, UBS assessed, with production, realised pricing and unit costs materially improving from the prior quarter.
UBS sees encouraging signs the Curragh reset is improving operational performance, while the Buchanan expansion is now complete. Curragh is the company’s coal mining complex in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, while Buchanan is an underground metallurgical coal mine in southwest Virginia, US.
UBS trimmed its earnings forecasts for the Neutral-rated miner (unchanged 21c target) following revised pricing and cost assumptions, noting consistent execution is needed to support a more attractive risk/reward outlook.
Global gaming company Light & Wonder and cinema technology company Vista International both surprised positively with their interim financial results, but still find themselves high on the week's ranking with falls in average FY26 earnings forecasts of -15% and -13%, respectively.
Outside daily coverage, analysts at Canaccord Genuity and Shaw and Partners were upbeat on Vista as explained in https://fnarena.com/index.php/2026/08/07/in-brief-vista-amcor-charter-hall-social-infra/
Capstone Copper’s average earnings forecast also fell slightly, despite a seventh consecutive quarter of record adjusted earnings: https://fnarena.com/index.php/2026/08/06/plenty-of-catalysts-ahead-for-capstone-copper/.
While multi-affiliate asset manager Pinnacle Investment Management heads up the table for positive change to earnings forecasts, the Monitor assesses an overall ‘miss’.
Analysts labelled FY26 a rather "messy" release: https://fnarena.com/index.php/2026/08/07/pinnacles-fy26-messy-but-positive/.
Results for both News Corp and REA Group exceeded expectations, resulting in upgraded average earnings forecasts by 25% and 18%, respectively.
Total Buy ratings in the database comprise 64.99% of the total, versus 28.23% on Neutral/Hold, while Sell ratings account for the remaining 6.78%.
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