Berenberg Says AXA's Underperformance 'Compelling' Buying Opportunity; Buy Rating Maintained

12:38 AM EST, 12/15/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Berenberg reiterated its buy rating and price target of 47.80 euros for AXA (CS.PA), saying the French insurer's "relative underperformance" year to date offers a "compelling" investment opportunity. "We have identified three factors why: in France, AXA is benefiting from accelerating net inflows in French life insurance and benign claims trends; secondly, the Prima acquisition should increase the company's growth in Italy and in direct insurance more generally; and lastly, we forecast that the health insurance turnaround is set to overshoot, contributing an extra EUR70m to H2 2025E underlying earnings, AXA's definition of taxed operating profit. We believe that these three points, combined with AXA's discipline of delivering on all targets, its manageable exposure to French macro risks and relative undervaluation, mean that the stock presents an easy short-term win for investors through to the company's FY 2025 results in February," according to a Dec. 12 note. The research firm views the group's targets for full-year 2024 to 2026 to be "ambitious" yet "achievable." Specifically, analysts project underlying EPS to rise at a 9% compound annual growth rate between the 2023 and 2026 period, consistent with AXA's 6% to 8% target range. For 2025 alone, Berenberg expects the company's underlying EPS growth to be at 8%.