Banana firm Fyffes (LON:FFY), up 9.5% today as after upgrading its own forecasts, remains undervalued according Declan Morrissey at Dublin broker Davy.
“Today’s statement marks the second successive year of material upgrades to FY guidance at the mid-year point,” Morrissey said. “Management’s goal of moving the business to a higher and more sustainable earnings base is playing out.
“Similar to last year, the magnitude of the Fyffes’ upgrade is significant (+21% at the mid-point) and is mainly driven by increased pricing in the banana category.”
Deutsche Bank’s Charlie Muir-Sands lifts his target price for ASOS (LON:ASC) to 3600p from 3500p and predicted an acceleration of international growth, although he also repeated a ‘hold’ recommendation.
“We expect key international markets will see acceleration quarter-on-quarter, due to company efforts to begin to re-base International pricing,” the analyst said in a note. “With inventory tight at the end of H1 and against heavy prior year markdown we also expect gross margin to rise.”
Elsewhere at Deutsche Banking analyst David Lock highlighted there was much detail in HSBC’s (LON:HSBA) recent briefings to the City but he says scepticism among investors would likely remain for the near-term.
HSBC’s price target at the German bank was cut to 560p from 580p today.
Royal Bank of Canada suggested something of a switch trade in ‘big oil’ with its analysts predicting Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) would outperform the rest of the sector while it also downgraded BP (LON:BP.) to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform’.
Toiletries firm PZ Cussons (LON:PZC) is no longer a ‘buy’, according to Goldman Sachs, which downgrades to ‘neutral’ this morning.
Goldman also snipped its price target for sugar group Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE), to 460p from 510p, and repeated a ‘sell’ recommendation.
Equipment hire firm Ashtead (LON:AHT) was upgraded to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’ by Exane BNP Paribas.
Jefferies increased its price target, to 500p from 420p, for Alton Towers owner Merlin Entertainments (LON:MERL) and repeated a ‘buy’ recommendation.
“The market continues to warm to Merlin as it grows into its PLC status,” analyst Mark Irvine-Fortescue said. “We expect earnings momentum and re-rating to drive further share price outperformance as roll-out is accelerated.”