The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Jan. 15, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Mike Stevens has lowered his recommendation for Kraken Robotics to "sector perform" from "outperform." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Stevens, however, boosted his share target by $1.25 to $8.75. Analysts on average target the shares at $6.50. Mr. Stevens says in a note: "We emphasize that Kraken continues to demonstrate strong operational execution and our move does not reflect any change to our long-term thesis for the company which centres around Kraken's innovative product set along with industry tailwinds continuing to drive demand across all of its businesses -- subsea power, SAS sensors, and platforms and commercial services. ... On profitability, we think EBITDA margins can expand modestly toward 25 per cent. ... When then factoring in the company's battery prospects alongside a burgeoning UUV space, there is no shortage of opportunities ahead to sustain (and even accelerate) this pace of growth. However, for now, we believe our expectations and assumptions are reasonable." Mr. Stevens says the company is well positioned to potentially outperform expectations.