The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Oct. 23, edition that Desjardins Securities analyst Maher Yaghi lowered his rating for Rogers Communications ($67.68) to "hold" from "buy" based on its current valuation and in the wake of outpeforming peers thus far in 2018. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Yaghi boosted his share target by a loonie to $71. Analysts on average target the shares at $72.53. Mr. Yaghi says in a note: "With nine months in the bag and given continued solid momentum, management gave the market what it wanted a guidance increase that put expected EBITDA growth in 2018 at 7 9 per cent, ahead of peers. This strong growth is the result of robust margin improvement due to cost cutting that management began last year. ... Rogers is outgrowing most companies in the sector, supported by improving metrics and margins, and potentially declining cable capex as the investment in node-splitting is well-advanced. We expect somewhat tougher comps, with margin expansion becoming harder to achieve, as wireline and wireless competition is expected to intensify in 2019. While the company's fundamentals are strong, we see better value elsewhere in the group."
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