Analysts’ recommendations

Early in 2018, the analysts determined that the LLB share had upside potential. Javier Lodeiro, the Zürcher Kantonalbank analyst responsible for monitoring the LLB share, upgraded the stock to “overweight”. He judged the acquisition of Semper Constantia Privatbank AG to be a “sensible step in the right direction”. In September, the analyst attested that LLB had “fundamentally taken several steps forward” and left his rating unchanged at “overweight”. At the end of December, the research team at Zürcher Kantonalbank included the share of Liechtensteinische Landesbank in its list of the top five favourites for 2019 in the small and mid-cap category, citing LLB’s strong competitive position in Liechtenstein and eastern Switzerland. The Semper acquisition has strengthened its presence in the Austrian market. LLB’s solid balance sheet, moreover, allows it to buy additional banks: it has some CHF 400 million in surplus capital available for such acquisitions. LLB is also performing very well operationally, though financial investments burdened the results somewhat in the first half of the year, client business is, however, likely to continue to develop positively, in the analysts’ view.

Research Partners AG has been covering the LLB share since the middle of 2016. In a report that came out in April, analyst Rainer Skierka viewed the acquisitions made by LLB as “strategically sensible in what is a consolidating market” and confirmed his buy recommendation. He raised the twelve-month price target significantly from CHF 56.20 to CHF 63.00. In his report published in June, the analyst lifted the price target further to CHF 72.00, arguing that: “We believe that, under StepUp2020, LLB remains on course, strategically and financially, to achieve the price target.” The equity research from Research Partners AG is not freely available and must be purchased.