Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) Price Target Trimmed by Citi

We recently published 12 Best Consumer Cyclical Stocks to Buy According to Analysts.  Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) is one of the best consumer cyclical stocks

Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) is a software technology company that offers online betting and other services. Its leading service FanDuel is one of the largest sports betting apps in the US and has a user base of more than 12 million users.

As of November 28th, 19 out of 27 analyst recommendations for Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) were a Buy. Out of the remaining eight, six were a Strong Buy while two were a Hold. The average share price target for Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT)’s shares is $307.59.

A fresh analyst report from Citi on November 29th lowered Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT)’s share price target to $320 from $340 and kept a Buy rating on the shares, The Fly reported. At the heart of the upgrade was the firm’s tussle with the British government after UK finance minister Rachel Reeves announced that the online gaming tax would rise from 21% to 40%. As the tax rate was increased, Citi noted that the clarity after the announcement came after Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) had suffered from uncertainty regarding the tax rates. The tax rate concern was at the center of analyst coverage ahead of Reeves’ announcement, with UBS cutting the share price target to $340 from $360 on November 20th as it commented that the stock could re-rate after the announcement as focus returns on its fundamentals.

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Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT)’s tax rates were also on UBS analyst Ben Shelley’s mind during the firm’s third-quarter earnings call. Shelley’s question revolved around wager fees in Illinois, and he asked management about the impact on player behavior and the firm’s strategy for future potential tax hikes. In response, Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT)’s CFO, Rob Coldrake, remarked:

“Yes. Hi, Ben. I can pick up on Illinois. So obviously, with the structure that was introduced in Illinois, as you’d expect, we’re seeing a reduction in the number of bets there. But increasing handle per bet. When we look to the September data, Illinois is definitely behaving in line with other states, so we saw no impact on our Q3 numbers. However, we do still kind of monitor this very closely, we’re looking at the market data closely at the start of Q4 and what that may or may not mean. When you take a step back and approach this higher level, we definitely feel that this is another lever or tool that we’ve got in our armory to potentially mitigate taxes in high-tax jurisdictions moving forward. We’re hopeful that the regulatory landscape potentially accelerates with some of the prediction developments as well as we discussed earlier.

But yes, this is certainly something that we’ll have in our toolkit moving forward and we’ll consider elsewhere where appropriate.”

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.