According to Deutsche Bank, Avis Budget has been “unreasonably left behind”, opening up buying opportunities for investors. Analyst Chris Woronka upgraded the stock to buy from hold. He also raised his price target to $263 from $239, implying a 61% upside potential from Tuesday’s close. “While our call was primarily valuation focused, we also saw a potential catalyst in the form of payback for share buybacks in the second half of the year,” Woronka wrote in a note. uncle on Wednesday. “CAR has significantly underperformed the travel and leisure sub-sectors on a YTD basis (with an average of 2,400 basis points) and we believe the stock could be attractive to investors. looking to buy lagging stocks at fair prices as the S&P 500 nears a nine-month high,” he continued. Stocks will be flat in 2023. Over the past 12 months, they have dropped 14.2%. CAR YTD Mountain CAR YTD “It’s no secret that CAR’s earnings have benefited from the resale of their vehicles for about eight quarters now, or that the company’s valuation index (‘RPD’) remains about 36% higher than the 2019 equivalent on a TTM basis. But we believe too much pessimism is pouring into equities on both accounts,” Woronka said Woronka thinks of the European segment of the stock. Avis will reach the highest expectations in the near future as the region continues to catch up in the post-Covid phase. the recuperation. “Buy the sluggard,” Woronka added. —Michael Bloom of CNBC contributed to this report.