Our Analyst Survey Says It's Time to Ease Up on Energy

Today in the podcast, we’re focusing on the results of our quarterly RBC analyst survey, which we conducted in late March and helps us incorporate the bottom-up views of RBC’s team of equity analysts into our top-down strategy sector recommendations. Five big things you need to know: First, outlooks among our analysts for performance over the next 6-12 months continue to tilt positive. Second, on performance over the next 6-12 months, our analysts remained highly constructive on Financials, Health Care, and Technology, but enthusiasm on Energy faded. Third, on issues other than performance, Health Care and Utilities generally rank well relative to other sectors. Fourth, as for what’s keeping our analysts up at night, many mentioned demand related issues in their discussions of key upside and downside risks. Fifth, triggered by our survey results, as well as our desire to reduce exposure to Value, we are lowering our recommendation on Energy from overweight to market weight.