The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, April 25, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Maxim Sytchev, following "soft" first quarter results, lowered his share target for Aecon Group to $22 from $23 with an unchanged "outperform"recommendation. The Globe's David Leeder writes that analysts on average target the shares at $22.64. Mr. Sytchev says in a note: "In the market's euphoria stage when the shares rocketed to almost $30 in late 2024, all on multiple expansion, mind you, we felt uncomfortable with the investment thesis and downgraded the shares; post the material step-down and Q4/24 write-down, the risk/reward skew became positive again. [Thursday's] call moderated somewhat the upper bound of the margin opportunity but getting to a 7-per-cent clean margin in 2026E following years of losses is sufficient for the investment thesis to work, in our view. [Thursday's] 10-per-cent share price retraction is too much as the envelope of losses has not expanded; granted, margin upside is perhaps lower but our forecasts never went there. In the world of decoupling supply chains, upped QC budget showing the way, investments in transport, nuclear, T&D, and defence all make us patient at current share price."