Positive order momentum, but long tail

Return of the Swede - performance picking up

NRC Group ASA: 1 director

A director at NRC Group ASA bought 120,000 shares at 6.000NOK and the significance rating of the trade was 71/100. Is that information sufficient for you to make an investment decision? This report gives details of those trades and adds context and analysis to them such that you can judge whether these trading decisions are ones worth following. Included in the report is a detailed share price chart which plots discretionary trades by all the company's directors over the last two years clearly...

Orders picking up

Improvements in Norway and Sweden

Small improvements, more to come

Q1 in line, introduces 2028 targets

Up to BUY - excessive share price fall

Important year coming up

Mixed upside potential, despite market recovery expectations

Pent-up demand and falling interest rates remain the backbone for newbuild recovery expectations. However, as the recovery has not yet started, property developers screen as the most attractive long-term, but visibility remains mixed. Diversified construction companies are more attractive on near-term P/Es, although many seem to be fully valued on solid share-price performance over the past six months. We maintain a neutral sector view; NCC and Skanska are our top picks.

AF Gruppen (Sell, TP: NOK120.00) - Q1 results are secondary

Given the E4 Bypass Stockholm project cancellation and the filing of fraud charges with the Swedish police by Trafikverket, our focus will be on the company’s position in Sweden, not its Q1 results. AF Gruppen has released limited details on the Trafikverket situation and has denied the charges. Ahead of the results (due at 07:00 CET on 15 May), we are below consensus on Q1e EBIT, despite being at the consensus midpoint. We reiterate our SELL and NOK120 target price.

AF Gruppen (Sell, TP: NOK120.00) - The ripple effects could be worse

After the Swedish Transport Administration on 19 February stated it was terminating its contract with AF Gruppen for the ongoing E4 Bypass Stockholm project – pointing to contract violations so serious that it intends to file police charges – we have eliminated the order from our backlog and cut our 2025e EPS by c5%. However, if found guilty of the violations in the legal process, we see even greater downside risk that in a worst-case scenario could include the company being excluded from public...

Higher uncertainty — down to HOLD

Large contract termination and serious allegations

Starting to show its true earnings power

AF Gruppen (Sell, TP: NOK120.00) - Too-high valuation and expectations

AF Gruppen reported Q4 revenue and EBIT above well our forecasts and Bloomberg consensus. Given the gross figures were boosted by minority share of profits and IFRIC15 accounting effects, the adj. EPS was still just 2% above our estimate and 7% above Infront consensus. We have raised our EPS for 2025e by c5% and 2026e by c4%. As we publish our 2027 forecasts, we have rolled forward our valuation, and thus have raised our target price to NOK120 (115). We reiterate our SELL.

Sweden and Betonmast surprises on the upside

Some early signs of improvement

NRC Group (Hold, TP: NOK4.50) - Results will speak for themselves

With its weaker-than-expected Q4, NRC Group reiterated its 2025 guidance for revenue of NOK7bn and an adj. EBIT margin above 2%. However, as the company has missed its revenue guidance and EBIT margin targets for seven years in a row (2018–2024), we await evidence of an EBIT margin recovery. We remain cautious, and believe NRC is a high-risk/high-reward investment case, with ample upside potential should it reach its EBIT margin targets. We reiterate our HOLD, but have cut our target price to NO...

Another messy report - ETM writedown of NOK 30m