logo-loader

Broker spotlight, including Supermarkets, Premier Foods and Hummingbird Resources

Last updated: 13:20 17 Jun 2015 BST, First published: 13:19 17 Jun 2015 BST

premier_foods_-_sharwoods

Credit Suisse doesn’t like what the supermarkets are selling.

“We see few opportunities within a group that has historically misallocated capital, is faced with extreme competitive pressures and operates in a very low-growth environment" the broker said.

It slapped an ‘underperform’ rating on Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) and a ‘neutral’ rating on Morrisons (LON:MRW).

Sticking with food, city firm Investec reckons Premier Foods (LON:PFD) is tasty and has upgraded the share to 'buy' from 'hold'.

It also punts up the target price a tad - to 51p from 47p each.

Analyst at Investec said: "An improving revenue trend is apparent at Premier although it is still early days in the turnaround plan and we would like to see further evidence of this progress at least being maintained."

"As the stock price has been weak since results, this provides sufficient headroom in forecast total return to move our recommendation from Hold to Buy.

Ciggie making giant British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) was also make under the radar in analyst world, with today Goldman weighing in with a price target upgrade to 3270p from 3010p.

It also moved its stance to 'neutral' from 'sell'.

The same heavyweight broker looked at water group Pennon (LON:PNN) today and is less impressed.

It repeated a 'sell' rating and reduced the target price by 10p to 785p from 795p.

Developer and housebuilder Crest Nicholson (LON:CRST) was also in focus with the brokers after it reported a jump in first-half profits, on the back of an improving market and a Conservative election win.

Deutsche Bank has today upgraded its forecasts and lifted the price target to 523p from 486p. It repeats a 'hold'.

In small caps, Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) recently hosted a tour of its four gold mining operations in the Amur region of Russia.

Cannacord Genuity was suitably impressed by the mines that it bumped its target price on the stock to 12p from 10p and maintained its ‘speculative buy’ rating.

Meanwhile, RFC Ambrian applauded the news that Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) is reducing the planned nujmber of mines from five to two at its Yanfolila Project.

The broker said: "The potential for a significant improvement in the already attractive project economics at Yanfolila as a result of these changes to the mine plan is very positive for a company of Hummingbird’s size."

The company expects that the other three pits will be brought into the mine plan in due course, extending the mine life and increasing production.

 

Caledonia Mining tackles 2023 challenges with optimism for 2024 as it...

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL) chief executive Mark Learmonth tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company faced a challenging 2023, primarily due to poor production in the first half of the year at its core asset, the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, and an underperformance...

51 minutes ago