Investec issued forecast downgrade after De La Rue's profit warning

26th Sep 2014 09:40

In a note issued on Friday, Investec Securities said it had lowered its earnings before tax, interest, and amortisation (EBITA) forecast for the banknote printer De La Rue to £64.1m for the 2015 fiscal financial year.Investec had originally forecasted EBITA to be £88.2m but in the wake of the profit warning issued by the firm on Friday, the third in three years, Investec announced it had lowered its forecast below guidance level, which currently stands a £69m.The analyst firm also reduced its earnings per share forecast for the 2015 and 2016 financial years by 35% and 43% respectively, while EBITA forecasts for the next two financial years have been downgraded by £24.1m and £33.5m.Investec said it expected the stock to fall heavily on Friday, especially given the signalled cut to the dividend and that it had reduced its target price on De La Rue shares to 600p, still higher than Numis' target price of 540p.De La Rue shares plummeted on Friday and had lost 27.55% to 549.87p at 09:37.