UPDATE: Credit Suisse Initiates Coverage on Coty with Neutral Rating, $17 PT as Near-Term Challenges Overshadow Longer-Term Opportunities

In a report published Tuesday, Credit Suisse analyst Michael Steib initiated coverage on Coty COTY with a Neutral rating and $17.00 price target. In the report, Credit Suisse noted, “We believe COTY has a longer-term top-line growth potential of 3-4% based on innovation, international expansion, stronger growth in skin care, and by over-indexing in growth channels such as travel retail, e commerce, and specialty multi brand retail. That said, the nearer-term outlook is more muted, and we still see marginal earnings risk to the downside despite consensus expectations for FY14 EPS decreasing by 10% since the IPO in June 2013.” Coty closed on Monday at $15.49.