Jefferies Downgrades Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to Hold on 'Relatively Limited' Potential Upside; Price Target Up

07:21 AM EDT, 08/18/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Jefferies downgraded Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADX:ADCB) to hold from buy, noting a "relatively limited" potential upside to the research firm's price target relative to the lender's peers. "Our new [12-month price target] is AED17.3 (+5% vs. AED16.5 prev.). However, the shares offer just around 10% potential upside, which leads us to lower our recommendation. We will closely watch [cost of risk / net interest margin] evolution and execution of ADCB's organic international expansion, which is increasingly coming into investor focus, for further upside / downside risks," according to a Tuesday note on banks in the Middle East and North Africa. The research firm updated its model following stronger-than-expected second-quarter trends, raising its full-year 2026 to 2028 EPS forecasts by an average of 5%. This revision pushed Jefferies' projected three-year EPS compound annual growth rate to 8%, up from 7% previously.