Inside the Market’s roundup of some of today’s key analyst actions
Canaccord Genuity analyst Carey MacRury raised his price target on Eldorado Gold Corp. (ELD-T, EGO-N) to C$63 from C$55 following site visits in Greece last week to the company’s Skouries project and Olympias mine. Even more aggressively, BofA Securities double-upgraded the stock, to “buy” from “underperform” after the site visits while raising its price objective to US$54 from US$32.
The tour for analysts was hosted by Eldorado’s senior management team. “Overall, we came away with a more positive view of the status of the Skouries ramp up and the 650ktpa expansion at Olympias,” Mr. MacRury said in a note to clients. “2026 is a key transition year for the company with Skouries and McIllvenna Bay set to ramp up production and drive an inflection in free cash flow in 2027—we model free cash flow of $806M in 2027 up from $709M in 2026.”
Skouries, part of the Kassandra Mines complex on the Halkidiki Peninsula, is one of Europe’s largest copper-gold porphyry development projects and Eldorado’s single most important near-term catalyst, according to Mr. MacRury. The January 2022 feasibility study outlined a 20-year mine life averaging 140,000 ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of copper annually. Olympias is a long-life underground gold-silver-lead-zinc mine that returned to commercial production in December 2017.
“We have made minor operating adjustments to our forecasts following the site visits, and we have lowered our discount rate on Skouries to 8% (from 10%) with the project nearing final completion. Our net asset value has increased 5.7% to $50.72/share,” the analyst said.
Meanwhile, BofA analysts led by Lawson Winder offered their bullish views in a report titled A new mining frontier.
“With Skouries largely de-risked, free cash flow is set to inflect meaningfully higher in 2027, and valuation is reasonable. We therefore increase our target net asset value (P/NAV) multiple to 1.25x (from 0.75x),” the U.S. bank said.
The average analyst price target is US$50.32, according to S&P Capital IQ.
CIBC World Markets has cut price targets on the Canadian power and utility stocks it covers to reflect the recent jump in bond yields, which weighs heavily on the dividend-rich, debt-intensive sector.
“U.S. and Canadian long-term bond yields have risen materially, while tight credit spreads, stronger oil prices and improving economic indicators have weighed on performance and valuations, consistent with the sector’s historical relationship to macro factors,” said CIBC analysts led by Mark Jarvi.
“Utility valuations for TSX-listed stocks have fallen from a ~44% premium to the broader market in June to ~27% (still not cheap), while U.S. utilities now trade at a ~15% discount. Current valuations are consistent with historical relationships to bond yields, suggesting a meaningful re-rating likely requires yields to moderate or other risk-off signals to emerge,” CIBC added.
Among the price target changes were: Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. (AQN-T) to US$6.00 (was US$6.25), Atco Ltd. (ACO-X-T) to $85 (was $88), Canadian Utilities Ltd. (CU-T) to $52 (was $55), Emera Inc. (EMA-T) to $72 (was $76), Fortis Inc. (FTS-T) to $78 (was $82), Hydro One Ltd. (H-T) to $56 (was $59), Capital Power Corp. (CPX-T) to $80 (was $83) and Transalta Corp. (TA-T) to $24.50 (was $26).
National Bank of Canada Capital Markets initiated coverage of Canadian Net REIT (NET-UN-X) with a “sector perform” rating and C$7 target.
Analyst Giuliano Thornhill suggested investors would be wise to look elsewhere in the REIT sector, particularly given the small-cap’s lack of liquidity and limited number of units that can be traded.
Canadian Net REIT has a predominantly management-free net-lease portfolio of single site properties in secondary markets.
“Its small scale and organic growth profile make M&A essential,” Mr. Thornhill said in a note. “An amortizing mortgage book may periodically release equity for reinvestment and provides significant torque to low rates, especially its Q4’27 loan. However, at today’s valuation and given these traits, we view competing retail options in our coverage as more attractive, which supply greater growth, liquidity and suitability to a higher-for-longer environment. At 9.5x 2026E funds from operations, the units screen inexpensive, though trade at 5.6% below our $6.90 NAV,” he said.
The analyst continued: “We view vacancy risk as limited across its properties given low in-place rents. However, the stability of its long duration leases and secondary market focus comes at the expense of less pricing power and occupancy retention prioritization. We expect organic NOI growth below our broader retail peer group at ~1-1.5%. CNET is primarily an M&A story, requiring sufficient spreads to underlying financing, transaction volumes, and refinancing capacity to generate additive per unit growth performance. Similar setups within our coverage, inclusive of strategic pipelines, are available, although not at CNET’s relatively lower valuation.”
The average analyst price target is C$7.46.
Desjardins analyst Bryce Adams is keeping with his $16 price target and “hold-above average risk” rating on Capstone Copper Corp. (CS-T) in the wake of the company’s sale of its Cozamin mine in Mexico to Luca Mining.
“While the fixed consideration of US$325 million is below our US$359 million valuation, the gap is potentially bridged by copper price–linked contingent payments, which can lift total proceeds to US$385 million in a strong copper price environment. We view the sale of Cozamin as strategically positive, which can strengthen the balance sheet ahead of the Santo Domingo FID [Final Investment Decision] expected in late 2026. Cozamin is 4% of our asset-level net asset value and is a non-core asset,” the analyst said.
Based on Mr. Adams’ estimates, Capstone trades at 5.2x estimated EV/2027 EBITDA and 0.91x net asset value per share, a discount vs. peers he covers at 6.6x and 0.97x, respectively, on average.
National Bank of Canada Capital Markets analyst Nathan Po raised his price target on DRI Healthcare Trust (DHT-UN-T) by C$2 to C$25.50 after the company announced an agreement Monday to acquire royalty rights to Tavapadon, a treatment for Parkinson’s disease. An FDA approval decision is expected within the next nine days.
Upon FDA approval, DHT will pay $316 million in exchange for a mid-single digits to low-double digits tiered royalty on net U.S. sales, four annual payments of $23.4 million each, and two potential sales milestones, all of which are subject to a combined $437.5 million cap on aggregate receipts.
“While Tavapadon is technically a pre-approval investment, the royalty structure and capped return clearly paint the investment as a shorter-duration, lower-risk asset,” Mr. Po said in a note.
His rating remains “outperform”, commenting that “the existing portfolio alone boasts a mid-teen free cash flow yield, marking a compelling entry point for a company with a credible path to exceed its low-teen EBITDA compounded annual growth rate guidance with new deployments.”
The average analyst price target is US$16.98.
TC Energy Corp.’s (TRP-T) US$400 million sale of the Guadalajara-Manzanillo pipeline to ESENTIA Energy “is strategically sensible,” said Scotiabank analyst Robert Hope.
He notes that the asset represents less than 1% of TC Energy’s EBITDA and is not integrated with the firm’s broader Mexican pipeline footprint.
“The transaction multiple of roughly 7.7x trailing EBITDA may appear modest at first glance, but we estimate the valuation rises to ~10x 2029 EBITDA, reflecting the expected annual EBITDA decline and making the sale price appear reasonable for a mature asset with less than a decade of contracted life remaining,” Mr. Hope said in a note. “We see the transaction as a value-realizing portfolio optimization that allows TC Energy to recycle capital from a non-core asset into its substantial North American growth backlog. Assuming a mid-2027 close, we expect proceeds will primarily be used to repay debt and support the capital program, with minimal impact on our financial forecasts (<1%).”
He reiterated a “sector outperform” rating on TC Energy and a C$105 price target. The average analyst price target is C$99.57.
“We continue to view TC Energy as deserving of a premium valuation, supported by its attractive business mix, highly contracted asset base, and visible growth outlook. Our target price is based on a 14.0x 2028E EV/EBITDA multiple, representing a premium to recent trading levels of approximately 12.6x,” Mr. Hope added.
Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz raised his price target on Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-Q) to US$570 from US$515 after a recent meeting at the software giant’s headquarters. That’s still below the average analyst price target of US$576.40.
“We left the meeting comfortable that our acceleration with capital discipline thesis for MSFT remains intact. In our view, Azure and M365 commercial can sustain business acceleration in FY27 as Copilot monetization remains strong, more compute capacity comes online, and as customers increasingly standardize on Microsoft as the primary enterprise AI platform. Further, efficiency gains and capital discipline are key focuses and yielding more predictable capex and positive free cash flow this year, unlike some hyperscaler peers. On balance, there is multiple risk that AI disruption and pull-forward of some 2HCY26 enterprise IT spending moderates Azure and M365 commercial revenue growth heading into CY27, compresses cloud margin, and/or capex efficiency decreases,” Mr. Schwartz said in note.
He reiterated an “outperform” rating.