Barclays upgrades Wizz Air to 'overweight', shares soar

(Sharecast News) - Wizz Air shares soared on Friday after Barclays upgraded the airline to 'overweight' from 'equalweight' and lifted the price target to 1,500p from 1,100p, "substantially reflecting" a higher assumed mid-term EBIT margin, increased from 6.5% to 7.8%. "For context our £15 price target would represent a 5.7x price-to-earnings on our revised FY28 earnings," the bank said.

"We recognise that there will be a significant period of uncertainty until the fleet renegotiation is defined."

It noted that Wizz plans to present a new business plan to the market towards the end of this year.

"We further expect unit costs to be challenged by the costs of slowing growth and the share to be burdened by falling consensus for FY26," it said. "The financial consequences of poor recent decision-making will not vanish with a set of better decisions in recent weeks.

"However, we see a far brighter future for a Wizz that grows modestly, focussing on its core CEE market, where it enjoys a strong market position. We expect sentiment on the stock to inflect to the positive."

At 1225 BST, the shares were up 8.9% at 1,169p.