Peel Hunt selects Rank Group as top value stock for 2021
UK casino operator the sole gambling stock among 31 picks including Travis Perkins and Bloomsbury Publishing
UK investment banking specialist Peel Hunt has selected London-listed casino operator Rank Group as a major value stock for the coming year. After a difficult financial year in 2020 due to Covid-19, Peel Hunt analysts have picked 31 top value public companies for 2021, covering 14 sectors with an average market cap of £560m. The chosen businesses range in market cap from builders’ merchant Travis Perkins at £3.5bn down to software solutions provider Idox at £220m. Rank – managed by CEO John O’Reilly – is the only gambling firm to have made the list, with a market cap of £661m. Peel Hunt analyst Ivor Jones wrote: “Grosvenor Casino venues have the potential to attract a greater share of leisure spend on a changed high street and may be permitted more gaming machines for customers to play on. “Mecca’s experiment with extending bingo session times seems to be paying off. Meanwhile, digital’s transition to the acquired Stride platform is well underway. “There is value locked up in Rank’s structural changes to be released once trading normalises,” he added. Earlier this week, fellow London-listed online gambling operator 888 Holdings was highlighted as a top growth stock by Peel Hunt for 2021.