** Australia's Collins Foods CKF.AX on Tuesday reported a 6.6% drop in its HY underlying EBITDA from cont ops with margins impacted by flat same-store sales, inflationary pressures

** Morningstar expects co to recover from poor HY results, citing tax cuts, jobs growth and monetary easing to bring back consumer spending in the longer term; maintains fair value estimate of A$13.50 per share

** Morgan Stanley raise their price target for the restaurant operator to A$11.60 from A$11.00, forecasting a stronger second half helped by improved divisional performance

** Macquarie, however, cut their price target by 1% to A$8.20, flagging softer consumer sentiment and margin pressures

** 6 of 12 analysts rate the stock "buy" or higher, the rest "hold"; their median PT is A$8.13

** Collins down 30.3% YTD to A$8.25, as of last close

(Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru)

((Adwitiya.Srivastava@thomsonreuters.com))