Year of light losses prompted higher analyst expectations
Continuing restructuring efforts on the part of banks brought about further changes among our analysts in 2012. During the year altogether four banks and brokers, namely the Royal Bank of Canada, Redburn, WestLB and UniCredit, ceased their research activities in relation to the Hannover Re share. On the other hand, two brokers – Raymond James and Primavenue – began to cover our share. With this in mind, and against the backdrop of a year of relatively light losses, around 300 analyst recommendations – some 50 fewer than in the previous year – were published for Hannover Re and the insurance sector in the year under review. As at the end of the financial year 34 analysts had handed down opinions on Hannover Re: ten analysts recommended the Hannover Re share as “buy” or “overweight”; altogether seventeen opinions were a “hold”, making this the most common, while “underweight” or “sell” recommendations were issued a total of seven times. The analysts’ average price target according to Bloomberg climbed steadily in the course of the year from EUR 42.52 at the outset to EUR 56.01 by year-end.