The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan has upgraded Magna International to "outperform" from "sector perform." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Narayan's share target soared $11 to $52 (all figures U.S.). Analysts on average target the shares at $50.53. Mr. Narayan boosted his recommendation after becoming increasingly "constructive" on global auto production and raising his output expectations. Mr. Narayan says in a note: "Our higher production forecast helps us raise Q4/24 EBIT [for Magna] to $584-million from $543-million. We remain slightly below consensus, but this could prove conservative. The implied guidance for Q4 calls for BE&S [Body Exteriors & Structures] margins to improve to 8.7 per cent in Q4 from 6.8 per cent in Q3, and for CV to improve to 3 per cent from 2.3 per cent for the same period. On the Q3 results call, management attributed some of this strength to customer recoveries. Consensus is already baking in an 8.2-per-cent/2.6-per-cent margin level for Q4 for the two segments. Given an improving production backdrop, U.S. December inventories were much better than expected, January U.S. sales are tracking better year-over-year."