Old people are in vogue at the moment.
Just a day after McCarthy & Stone unveiled a listing and plans to dominate the retirement home market, Canaccord has turned sweet on OAP specialist Saga (LON:SAGA).
Worryingly for other road users it is the prospects for Saga’s motor insurance business that has prompted the ‘buy’ rating.
“While entry into the large wealth management market has taken the headlines this year, it is improving prospects and a better strategy for the largest product line, motor insurance, that we believe is likely to provide much of the growth in EBITDA in 2016.”
The broker sees Saga’s share of the over 50s motor insurance market rising to 10% from 8% by fiscal year 2018, while earnings will also be helped by growth in staple elderly products such as investments services, private care and legal services.
The target price is 240p.
Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.) is another wealth manager wowing analysts at the moment. RBC upgraded to perform after the results yesterday, with a new price target of 1,400p from 1,025p.
“We materially increase our forecasts to reflect the impressive momentum in Hargreaves, and in our opinion it remains well-positioned as the leading incumbent in a growing market.”
The catch, RBC says, is the share’s valuation, which already reflects Hargreaves’ numerous benefits and is the highest in our coverage universe by a significant margin.
Mining titan BHP Billiton's (LON:BLT) marketing team has been visiting London explaining how its operation works. UBS is keen and has kept its buy rating largely because the miner and oil producer is the highest yielding stock on the FTSE100. The target is £14 share based on 0.9 times net present value.
The risk is the stock remains depressed until prices pick up,with volume growth negative adds the broker.
House broker RFC Ambrian is earning its corn with a bullish note on African gold miner Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM).
Buy with a 45p target is the verdict, based on its view that the Yanfolila gold mine in Mali more than underpins the current share price with the explorer’s second project Dugbe 1 not even figuring.