The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, April 11, edition that Scotia Capital analyst Konark Gupta thinks valuations for Canadian aerospace and defence companies remain "attractive" heading into first quarter earnings season, particularly for Bombardier. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Gupta has reaffirmed his "sector outperform" recommendation for Bombardier. Mr. Gupta, however, trimmed his share target back by $2 to $83. Analysts on average target the Class B shares at $75.40. Mr. Gupta says in a note: "Our thesis on margin expansion and balance sheet deleveraging continues to play out, while the top-line growth story has recently improved with Bombardier raising its production rate earlier than we had expected. That said, we have low expectations from Q1 given management had cautioned on wider FCF usage vs. last year and our understanding that delivery mix was more skewed toward Challenger jets than we were previously anticipating. Thus, there is some risk that the stock could trade sideways on earnings day if EBITDA and FCF fail to impress the Street. However, we would take advantage of any weakness as the company could potentially raise some 2025 targets at the upcoming investor day on May 1."