Rolls-Royce Is Free of Sell Ratings for First Time in 17 Years

For the first time since 2006, not a single analyst followed by Bloomberg recommends selling shares of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc.

(Bloomberg) — For the first time since 2006, not a single analyst followed by Bloomberg recommends selling shares of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc.

The last bear on the Street, JPMorgan Chase & Co., lifted its rating to neutral from underweight on Monday, joining other former sell-rated brokers like BNP Paribas Exane and Oddo BHF in upgrading the jet engine maker amid this year’s Europe-leading rally in the stock.

Rolls-Royce has surged 125% in 2023 to put it on track for its biggest-ever annual gain, thanks to a faster-than-expected recovery in demand for engines that power wide-body planes used in long-haul travel. That’s spurred hopes the company could resume dividend payments, halted as Covid-19’s spread shuttered international travel in 2020.

JPMorgan analysts David H Perry and Alessandro Rossi Polvara cited the firm’s pricing power for their upgrade on Monday. “We had been very skeptical that Rolls-Royce would be able to raise its prices so significantly, but it appears we were mistaken,” they wrote in a note to clients.

Rolls Royce was the best-performing FTSE 100 stock on Monday, advancing 1.7% by 10:55 a.m. in London.

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