It is not criminal to own Anglo American (LON:AAL) shares, but it is not recommended by City broker Liberum, which today downgraded the miner to its ‘conviction sell’ list.
“Demand is failing in both early- and late-cycle commodities, resulting in weak prices and removing the diversification benefits of Anglo American,” Liberum analyst Ben Davis said in a note.
“The South African asset base poses a dangerous overhang given the difficulty in shutting loss making mines (very high political sensitivity to unemployment, 26.4% in Q1’15), and the continuing cross substitution will drain cash.”
The City broker has a 655p target price, which is some 11% lower than the current price of 740p.
Also at Liberum, analyst Charlie Campbell upgraded SIG (LON:SHI) to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and set a 220p price targets from 186p.
Credit Suisse cut its price target for electronics firm Premier Farnell (LON:PFL) to 140p from 175p, though the rating remains ‘neutral’.
Berenberg switched its view of commercial vehicle hire firm Northgate (LON:NTG) to ‘sell’ from ‘buy’, as analyst Benjamin May said investors are becoming disillusioned with the share.
“Investors have become increasingly perplexed as Northgate has changed its deprecation policy many times within the past two years,” he said in a note.
“As a result, the business is now guiding that profitability will be materially affected from 2016 and that it sees PBT remaining flat until 2018.”
Berenberg also downgraded Topps Tiles (LON:TPT) to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ though the price target remains 175p.