Whilst seemingly not fans of the Government’s part-owned bank, analysts at Investec today upgraded Lloyds (LON:LLOY) to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ because the price has fallen far enough to be worth picking up.
Analyst Ian Gordon, in a note, claimed a 17.5% share price ‘correction’ over fifteen weeks in itself triggered the upgrade.
“We have no intention of joining the growing ranks of the Lloyds ‘100 club’ – analysts with a target price of 100p or more for Lloyds’ shares, which is a level not seen since 2008,” he said.
Investec’s upgrade, instead, comes with a 86p target which is about 11% above today’s price of 77p per share.
Similarly, Gordon says a fallen share price is the only reason for his upgrade for Barclays (LON:BARC), which is moved to ‘buy’ from ‘sell’ – a 270p price target remains constant, but now represents about 5% upside.
Jefferies has upgraded its price target for Dairy Crest (LON:DCG) to 640p from 535p – post dairies disposal - on the basis of a positive outlook for the cheese and whey business and attractive cash flows in the spreads division.
UK transport group Stagecoach (LON:SGC) was downgraded to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ by HSBC.