The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, March 11, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Maxim Sytchev thinks negative macroeconomic sentiment has led to a "punitive" valuation for Aecon Group relative to its higher quality backlog and "significantly derisked" earnings profile. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Sytchev continues to target the shares at $23. Analysts on average target the shares at $26.41. Accordingly, in a research report released Monday titled Welcome to the Despondence Stage, he raised his recommendation for the Toronto-based construction company to "outperform" from "sector perform," believing soft investor sentiment has compressed its valuation to "attractive levels" and "historical precedent suggests a reliable 'buy' signal." Mr. Sytchev says in a note: "Aecon shares have pulled back a material 36 per cent (vs. down 3 per cent for the TSX) following our downgrade three months ago when they traded at an 18.5 times P/E on 2025 NBF estimates; now they trade at 11 times 2025 P/E and are also valued at a considerable discount to peers who are similarly exposed to the electrification and utilities themes in the U.S. construction space such as Quanta (NYSE: PWR) and MasTec (NYSE: MTZ)."