0212 GMT - Lovisa's bulls at Morgan Stanley see a chance that the fashion-jewelry retailer could beat their EPS forecast on strong store growth. MS data suggests that Lovisa had 992 corporate stores at the end of its 2025 fiscal year, which the analysts point out is well ahead of the consensus forecast of 969. They tell clients in a note that store rollouts appeared to accelerate across the June half, with strength in the U.S. and Europe alleviating concerns about quality. MS raises its target price by 11% to A$35.00 and stays overweight on the stock, which is up 2.8% at A$32.34. ([email protected])

0206 GMT - UBS analysts see risk of further outflows at Platinum Asset Management as it folds a managed fund into an active ETF. The Australian manager is progressing with plans to merge its Platinum Asia Investments Fund with its Platinum Asia Fund Complex ETF, both of which are listed on the ASX. The UBS analysts tell clients in a note that retail outflows are already stronger than they had anticipated, with the A$330 million seen in June beating their A$250 million estimate. UBS lifts its target price by 13% to A$0.53 amid higher-than-expected fiscal 2026 cost savings. It keeps a neutral rating on the stock, which is up 9.1% at A$0.54. ([email protected])

0137 GMT - There's a good chance that Temple & Webster's group margins could suffer near term if the furniture retailer delivers on its expansion into home improvement, Morgan Stanley analyst James Bales warns. Home improvement is a higher-margin business than the Australian company's core furniture operations, but Bales reckons that early traction would prompt Temple & Webster to increase reinvestment to drive further growth. He tells clients in a note that he anticipates fiscal 2026 sales expectations to rise but margins to fall. He sees this adding to long-term shareholder value. MS has an overweight rating and A$28.00 target price on the stock, which is up 1.0% at A$21.62. ([email protected])

0128 GMT - Morgan Stanley analysts' faith in Tuas's competitive position remains intact despite fresh concerns about the reliability of data on Singapore mobile downloads. They tell clients that they had previously seen download data as an accurate indicator of Tuas's subscriber growth, but that material restatements to past estimates make them doubt the accuracy of recent figures. They decide that industry download data is better suited to paint a picture of participants' market share. On this front, they see no issues for challenger Tuas from incumbent mobile providers. MS has an overweight rating and A$7.00 target price on the stock, which is down 0.4% at A$5.44. ([email protected])

0119 GMT - Lifestyle Communities loses its bull at Citi amid concerns that negative publicity surrounding the housing provider could hit near-term sales. Analyst Suraj Nebhani lowers his recommendation on the stock to neutral/high risk from buy, pointing to the fallout of an Australian tribunal ruling that Lifestyle Communities has been breaching tenancy laws in the way it charges residents exit fees. He removes all income from the fees from his estimates and tells clients in a note that the case could present some sales risk. Nebhani doesn't think the company will breach covenants, but acknowledges some risk around its interest-cover ratio covenant. Citi lowers its target price by 42% to A$5.00. Shares are up 5.4% at A$4.66. ([email protected])

0010 GMT - Australian bank earnings look largely locked in for the upcoming earnings season. It's what follows that bothers Macquarie. "We believe medium-term earnings risks remain skewed to the downside as interest rates continue to fall which should drive bank underperformance," Macquarie says. The bank expects Australian interest rates to fall another 125 basis points. Macquarie has neutral calls on NAB and ANZ, and underperform ratings on CBA and Westpac. ANZ appears to have the greatest potential for valuation gains, Macquarie says. Still, the bank remains "cautious ahead of a potential rebasing of earnings expectations and limited visibility into the new CEO's approach to strategy and execution." ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

0006 GMT - The market could turn slightly more bullish about wealth-management platform provider Netwealth's earnings in the wake of its 4Q update, suggests Citi. Netwealth said it ended FY 2025 with A$112.8 billion of funds under administration, or FuA. That included inflows of some A$29.2 billion across the year. "Net-net we see potential for slightly upgrades to consensus earnings, with higher cash balances and managed accounts partially offset by higher mix of ultra high net work FuA," analyst Siraj Ahmed says. "Net flows were weaker but was likely expected by investors and record account openings is a key positive." Netwealth rises 0.1% to A$35.14. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

2259 GMT - If tariffs push up global prices of copper then Reliance Worldwide's costs are likely to rise, says Citi. Reliance Worldwide sources copper wire and old phone cables, which it processes into brass. These materials use the LME price as a reference, albeit at a discount. Analyst Samuel Seow highlights that every US$100/ton move in the copper price drives a change of US$1.1 million in Reliance Worldwide's Ebitda. Reliance Worldwide needs copper prices to settle before it can change prices of its own products. It then needs around six months to negotiate with customers. Citi has a "buy" call and A$5.25/share price target on Reliance Worldwide, which ended Wednesday at A$4.15. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

1842 ET - Outdoor advertising group oOh!media is cut to hold from buy by Jefferies after its stock rose some 60% in the past four months. "We've been positive on out-of-home as a media format," analyst John Campbell says, noting that oOh!media is the market leader in Australia. "However, we see oOh!media as now looking relatively fully valued though acknowledge with the rate-cut cycle underway, media ad spend may be about to turn up." Jefferies retains a A$1.80/share price target on oOh!media, which ended Wednesday at A$1.775. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

0540 GMT - CP Axtra's same-store sales growth trend raises worry over consumption weakness, CGS International's Chaiyatorn Sricharoen says in a research report. This trend didn't improve meaningfully in June from April-May, despite the dissipation of weather-related disruptions that had earlier affected CP Axtra's beverage and air-conditioner sales. This reinforces the brokerage's view that this weakness is structural, pointing to a more fragile consumer environment. Gross margin of its Lotus's retail business may also narrow by 20bps in 2Q, pressured by lower proportion of high-margin non-food sales and intensified price competition. The brokerage downgrades the stock's rating to hold from add and lowers the target price to THB20.60 from THB29.00. Shares are 1.6% lower at THB18.80. ([email protected])

(END) Dow Jones Newswires