Equity analysts at investment bank Berenberg have upgraded their opinion on media giant Liberty Global. Analyst Carl Murdock-Smith at the bank cited the bank’s rating on Liberty Global shares to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ although kept the target price for Liberty’s stock at $30.

Murdock-Smith noted that Liberty enjoys several catalysts, as well as a “consistent commitment to buybacks” that is likely to provide “significant support” to the stock.

“We continue to believe there is room for improvement in Liberty’s governance, but even after taking this into consideration, we still find the share price compelling at these levels,” Murdock-Smith wrote in the bank’s note to clients.

Part of the mix is that Liberty is raising prices in many of its markets. Murdock-Smith pointed out that three of Liberty’s four major markets should benefit after price increases, with the 50 per cent-owned Virgin Media/O2 in the UK having raised fixed-line prices 6.5 per cent in March and mobile between 8-9 per cent in April. In Belgium, Telenet, which Liberty Global owns 61 per cent of, is raising prices 4.7 per cent this month. In July, Netherlands-based VodfaoneZiggo, which Liberty Global) owns 50 per cent of, is raising its prices by 3.5 per cent.

This price hikes will flow through to the bottom line and overall the company is helped by cost-cutting and the ending of current integration costs.

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Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite

Tags: berenberg, Liberty Global, Virgin Media, ziggo