** Shares in Italy's Iveco IVG.MI are up around 6% after Kepler Cheuvreux raises its rating on the truck maker to "buy" from "hold"

** "Iveco end-market diversification (...) should continue to support earnings", it says

** It deems the valuation on all the company's metrics as "appealing"

** It adds the European heavy-duty truck's cycle will improve in the second half of the year, despite some short-term concerns about sales volume in the industry

** Shares in Iveco are among the top performers on the pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index, which is up 0.3%

** Out of 11 analysts that cover the company, seven rate the stock as "strong buy" or "buy," ​four rate it "hold" and no analysts rate the stock "strong sell" or "sell"

(Reporting by Alberto Chiumento)