The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Jan. 23, edition that Scotia Capital analyst Konark Gupta has lowered his recommendation for CAE to "sector perform" from "sector outperform." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Gupta slashed his share target by $5.50 to $31. Analysts on average target the shares at $35.17. Mr. Gupta says in a note: "Shares have materially lagged the recent rally since the market troughed on Oct. 27, 2023. ... Investors have recently grown concerned about the stock's valuation in light of the ongoing delays in the defense segment's margin recovery. [We believe] the stock has upside in the long term and defense margins have potential to recover over the coming years as the mix between drag, normal and transformational contracts changes favourably, we don't expect a strong catalyst in the near term due mostly to our reduced conviction in defense margins. CAE could potentially resume shareholder returns (dividend and/or NCIB) in the near term following the closing of the healthcare divestiture given the leverage ratio is normalizing, but we don't view it as a sustainable catalyst against margin execution concerns. ... [We] don't see a significant downside risk in the near term."