Japanese broker Nomura has lifted its price target on fags maker British American (LON: BATS) to 4930p from 4810p and repeated a 'buy' rating.
Analyst David Hayes says the firm's underlying business is in "excellent health".
He believes the firm has been " punished unfairly" when evaluating the potential impact of foreign exchange pressures relative to certain peers. Last week, results showed the impact of currency headwinds but there were also "outstanding" sales volumes.
"Given the strong underlying EBIT outlook (supported by cost saves), expected high-single digit FY16 earnings growth due to support from Reynolds, and its impending entry into ‘heat not-burn’, we believe the current valuation at relative 5-year lows is unjustified," added the analyst.
Also on the upside today , RBC Capital Markets has upgraded copper giant Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) to 'sector perform' from 'underperform' and pumped up the target price to 1800p from 1500p. The current share price is 1,934p.
On the downside, US broker Jefferies has cut Capita's price target down to 550p from 600p but repeats 'overweight' Nomura also repeats a 'buy' but lowers it target to 1303p from 1406p.
In oil, Genel Energy (LON:GENL) is downgraded to 'neutral' from 'outperform' by Macquarie. It comes after yesterday the firm reported a big downgrade of 2P reserves at its Taq Taq field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.