Shore Capital downgrades Greggs, says there's little to stimulate the shares

(Sharecast News) - Shore Capital downgraded Greggs on Wednesday to 'hold' from 'buy' saying that as investment reaches its peak, it sees little to stimulate the shares. The broker said it still believes Greggs is a very high quality business with an excellent management team and a value/quality proposition that continues to positively stand out in the UK food-to-go market.

"We also believe that growth opportunities do exist and that the group could be a materially bigger business on a five-year view albeit the 'peak' Greggs question is likely to be revisited periodically."

That said, Shore expects the financial performance to be more subdued than in recent years and versus what it anticipated at the time of the upgrade.

"We see the shares being dull for a couple of years, with limited catalysts to drive material upside," it said. "We concede we went too early in January in turning positive and downgrade our recommendation to hold."

At 0900 BST, the shares were down 1.6% at 2,084p.