London, Jan 6, 2026, 10:19 GMT — Regular session
- DCC shares slid to a 52-week low in morning trade as a fresh broker downgrade weighed.
- Morgan Stanley cut its rating and lowered its price target in a 2026 sector outlook.
- Investors now look to DCC’s Feb. 4 trading statement for an update on winter trading.
Shares in DCC (DCC.L) fell 5.2% to 4,192 pence on Tuesday, after touching 4,190 — the bottom of their 52-week range — in a sharp early-year pullback. The stock had closed at 4,424 pence on Monday.
The selloff comes ahead of a busy stretch for management, with investor conferences in London on Jan. 8 and Jan. 20 and a third-quarter trading statement due on Feb. 4. The broader FTSE 100 was modestly higher.
DCC has fallen 15.8% over the past year, and Monday’s 2.6% drop left it nursing a roughly 10% decline since mid-December, according to LSEG data published by the Financial Times.
Morgan Stanley analyst Annelies Vermeulen downgraded DCC to Equal Weight from Overweight and trimmed her 12-month price target to 5,750 pence from 6,150, as the bank set out its 2026 outlook for European business services. The note flagged caution on staffing and chemical distribution, while naming preferred picks including Experian, Diploma and Rentokil.
Equal Weight is Morgan Stanley’s way of saying it expects the shares to perform broadly in line with the sector. Even after the cut, the new target sits well above Tuesday’s trading levels, underlining that the downgrade was more about relative appeal than a call on near-term survival.
Investors are also weighing how the group’s recent capital return resets the story. In December, DCC bought back 11.6 million shares for about £600 million in a tender offer — a buyback where shareholders sell shares back to the company at a set price — and cancelled the stock, leaving 85.4 million shares with voting rights.
DCC has been slimming down to focus on energy after selling its healthcare business in September and a UK and Ireland Info Tech unit in October, the company said at interim results in November. “We continue to expect good profit growth for the full year in line with market expectations,” chief executive Donal Murphy said. Investegate
But the next update will test whether that confidence holds through the heart of the heating season. A repeat of the mild-weather headwind flagged at the half-year stage, or fresh margin pressure in energy products, would keep the downside risks in play.
