Stora Enso's Planned Forest Asset Spinoff Prompts AlphaValue/Baader Europe to Lift Price Target

02:56 AM EST, 12/30/2025 (MT Newswires) -- AlphaValue/Baader Europe raised its price target for Stora Enso (STEAV.HE, STERV.HE), highlighting the Finnish paper and packaging company's forest monetization plans, particularly the planned demerger of its forest assets. "Even though Stora's earnings recovery is slower than expected, the firm's re-rating in recent times seems to be a lot more driven by management's earlier actions to partly monetise well-appreciated forest assets and now, the big decision to demerge forest assets as a separately-listed entity. Moreover, as peers remain mum [with respect to] any partial forest monetisation plans, Stora emerges as the best proxy to capitalise on this opportunity to generate excess cash, which can eventually also be passed on to shareholders," the research firm said Monday. As such, the buy-rated stock's price target was increased by 3.98% to 14.5 euros. On the other hand, analysts cut their adjusted EPS estimates for 2025 by 15.9% to 0.75 euro and by 6.3% to 1.03 euros amid expectations of "delayed" recovery in Stora Enso's key end markets. However, AlphaValue/Baader Europe still expects profit margins to remain "much better" compared with the "lows" in 2023, citing continued "healthy contribution" from the forest business and the group's ongoing profit improvement plans.