Retail analysts are burning the midnight oil with the mass of Christmas updates.
Today’s highlights very briefly. Liberum says buy ASOS (LON:ASC) with a 3,700p target price after strong Christmas sales.
Cantor Fitzgerald says Home Retail’s (LON:HOME) statement was an underwhelming defence document with Argos, in particular, disappointing.
Aussie firm Wesfarmers has offered £340mln for Homebase and Cantor estimates Home Retail still has a break-up value of over 260p per share even with lowered earnings expectations. ‘Buy’ with a target price of 195p.
JD Sports (LON:JD.) put in a champion’s performance over Christmas, says Investec.
As a consequence, its earnings forecast for 2016 and 2017 go up by 10% with a new target price of 1,280p from 1,100p.
“JD appears to be in a sweet spot as several years of store & infrastructure investment is starting to bear fruit.”
Housebuilders feature again this morning with Deutsche Bank still a bull of the sector despite its strong performance over the past year.
Top picks for the broker remain Barratt (LON:BDEV) and Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) as robust mortgage lending, house price inflation and a land market will sustain the sector’s current high returns.
In tough times, the significant dividend yields and lower risk profile will continue to be difficult to ignore adds the broker.
For that reason it has also upgraded Berkeley (LON:BKG) to buy with a new price target of 4,161p.
JP Morgan has cut its target on building materials group Wolseley (LON:WOS) to 3,459p from 4,150p.
Warm UK weather, further commodity deflation and signs of weakness in some US are to blame.
Berenberg has upgraded Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) to ‘buy’ and it joins the broker’s Alpha list with a 750p price target.
The current valuation offers enough of a safety margin to invest in the new strategy despite the many concerns.
Chemicals group Elementis (LON:ELM) also gets an upgrade, to outperform, from Credit Suisse.
On a worst case 2016, the broker only sees 10% earnings downside and the cyclical headwinds are all in the price.
“Elementis occupies a sustainable/niche market position with secure market share, sustainable long term returns and a robust balance sheet,” it adds. The target price is 240p.