Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) is among the oil stocks most levered to any crude recovery, according to Barclays Capital, though the investment bank downgraded the oil field developer.
Barclays now rates Ithaca as ‘equal weight’ down from ‘overweight’, and cuts its price target down to 30p from 34p.
Analyst James Hosie highlights that Ithaca shares have “rebounded sharply” from the multi-year lows set in January, and it has doubled in value whilst Brent crude has risen from $30 to $40 per barrel.
At this point the share is pricing in a visible production growth profile alongside a continued recovery in Brent to around $70/bbl by 2018, he added.
“The company is relatively well positioned during a very challenging time for UK upstream operators, but we now see better value elsewhere in our European E&P coverage group,” Hosie said.
Elsewhere, Barclays lifted its target price for Allied Gold (LON:ALD) to 235p from 225p, whilst repeating an ‘equal weight’ rating. Similarly JP Morgan moved its target to 275p from 270p, and said the miner was still worthy of an ‘overweight’ rating.
Anglo American (LON:AAL) was downgraded by Exane BNP Paribas to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’, and it slashed Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’.
Peel Hunt dropped Acacia Mining (LON:ACA) to ‘hold’ and cut the target to 240p from 275p.
Cantor Fitzgerald has begun covering Windar Photonics (LON:WPHO) – an AIM technology company focussed on wind power markets - with a ‘buy’ note, with a 148p price target which suggests some 109% upside to the current price of 70.75p.
“Windar has developed a potentially disruptive wind measurement technology, in our view,” said Cantor analyst Adam Forsyth.
“The added value it can bring to both wind turbine owners and manufacturers is evidenced by initial inroads with many leading industry players. Following a false start with a Chinese distributor, we believe that Windar is now back on track and we forecast it to see take up of its technology grow strongly over the next few years.”