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Brokers - Berenberg pumps up Halfords rating

Last updated: 11:24 16 Nov 2015 GMT, First published: 09:24 16 Nov 2015 GMT

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Berenberg pumps up cycle and car parts firm Halfords (LON:HFD) today, upgrading the shares to 'hold' from 'sell'.

The German bank however clips back the target price on the retailer to 375p from 430p.

The same broker is also upbeat on British pharma giant Shire (LON:SHP) lifting the price target £3 to £63 and repeating a 'buy' call.

Tullow Oil (LON:TW.) gets the thumbs up from Swiss broker UBS, which lifts the rating to 'buy' from 'neutral'.

It comes after last week the well-followed oil firm promised  further cutbacks, with capital spending planned to reduce by around 36% in 2016.

Capex for full year 2015 was put at around US$1.9bn and next year it was expected to drop to US$1.2bn.

From current operations Tullow’s production for the year-to-date is on track, and the company said it now expects full year net production to average between 66,000 and 67,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).

On the red pen front, US broker Jefferies has reduced its price target on commodities behemoth Glencore (LON:GLEN) to 100p from 140p but repeats a 'hold'.

Heavyweight JP Morgan Cazenove has downgraded its target on multinational construction and support specialist Interserve (LON:IRV) to 637p from 704p after last week's interim management statement.

The rating is a repeated 'overweight', however.

Analyst Jolyon Wellington said: "The main negative from the statement is that the UK construction business has run into difficulties with three of its process energy contracts, leading to the group expecting a break-even performance from that division.

"On the positive side, better performances elsewhere in the business, notably equipment services, offset this and our group expectations are unchanged."

Majestic Wine (LON:MJW)  has its cork put back in by Investec, which moves the target to 400p, down from 530p after the group's first half numbers, but keeps a 'buy' stance.

Analyst Alistair Davies noted that investment was needed, but that there were encouraging signs.

"An encouraging first half gives us confidence that management is making the right decisions as part of a 3 year transformation plan for Majestic, focusing on customer recruitment and retention," he said in the note.

Elsewhere, house broker Cantor Fitzgerald said Stride Gaming's (LON:STR) underlying results today were slightly better than flagged in September, with the good organic growth and nod to more acquisition opportunities also plusses.
 
Stride, the owner of the Kitty Bingo, Lucky Pants and Jackpot Liner sites, posted revenues of £27.8mln in the year to August with underlying profits [EBITDA] of £7.3mln (£1.23mln).
 
The move to mobile is helping, added the broker, with access now 48.9% of bingo-led net gaming revenues on its mobile friendly sites and potential for further development.
 
The recently introduced UK point-of-consumption tax and tougher regulation is also playing into the hands of larger operators such as Stride.
 
To oil and junior Eland Oil & Gas (LON:ELA) has seen a 50% increase in production and minimal downtime from its operation in Nigeria.
 
The Opuama field is now churning out a gross 4,400 barrels of crude a day, or 1,980 net to the AIM-listed firm’s local sUBSidiary Elcrest.
 
Broker Cantor Fitzgerald, reiterating its ‘buy’ advice and 178p target price, said focusing on Opuama and Gbetiokun on the OML 40 licence area in Nigeria was a ‘sensible’ short-term strategy.
 
It reckons access to the petroleum profits tax holiday and “preferential cash flows” make the developments “worth considerably more than its working interests would suggest”.
 

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