Lehman Puts America First

Updated from Noon EST

Stocks might not look so hot in the U.S. right now, but according to at least one brokerage, they look worse in Europe.

Lehman Brothers on Monday upped its exposure to the U.S. equity market in its global recommended portfolio, arguing that technology, media and telecommunications stocks in America are more attractively valued than they are in Europe.

The investment bank's global strategist, Ian Scott, said he is lifting his weighting of U.S. stocks to 50% from 39% and dropping his European exposure, excluding the U.K., to 24% from 35%.

"A divergence in valuations between these two regions has motivated us to increase exposure to U.S. technology, media and telecom stocks and reduce our European holdings," said Scott in a research note.

According to the strategist, the tech sector looks undervalued in the U.S., but fully valued in Europe.

Overall, Lehman boosted its total technology exposure to 14% from 12% and reduced sector holdings in financials to 29% from 31%, health care to 12% from 13% and utilities to 1% from 2%. It is increasing energy sector holdings to 5% from 3%, amid expectations for a spike in crude prices.

At a time when many analysts remain bearish on technology stocks, Scott is citing bullish trends.

"The motivation behind the additional exposure to technology is twofold," he wrote. "First, as we have mentioned before, there are signs that procurement budgets are now being relaxed in the U.S. and valuations appear undemanding to us, especially in software."

Underlying the more encouraging spending patterns for technology, Scott said, is a more generous level of free cash flow generation, with yields at just above 3% at the top end of the post-war range.

Lehman Brothers said it will add the following stocks to its recommended portfolio: Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks), Porsche, Assa Abloy, HSBC, Adecco (ADO Quote - Cramer on ADO - Stock Picks), Zurich Financial (ZFSVY Quote - Cramer on ZFSVY - Stock Picks), France Telecom (FTE Quote - Cramer on FTE - Stock Picks), Sage (SGGEY Quote - Cramer on SGGEY - Stock Picks) and Exel.

The bank is removing Ahold, Altana, Atlas Copco (ATLSF Quote - Cramer on ATLSF - Stock Picks), Banco Popular, LVMH (LVMUY Quote - Cramer on LVMUY - Stock Picks), Swiss Re, Telecom Italia (TI Quote - Cramer on TI - Stock Picks), ARM (ARMHY Quote - Cramer on ARMHY - Stock Picks) and Reckitt Benckiser.