If Easyjet (LON:EZJ) is eyeing a bid for Monarch Airlines, it gets the thumbs up from Cantor Fitzgerald.
Reports over the weekend suggested a bid was imminent and the broker reckons it is plausible.
“Monarch appears to be a good potential fit and we think that EZJ needs a new source of growth following aggressive expansion at London Gatwick airport in recent years. “
Competition issues are a wrinkle and concerns about market concentration possibly pose a major hurdle.
Overall, Easyjet remains the broker’s favourite airline on a forward earnings multiple of 10 and a yield of 4.1%. Buy is the rating and the target price is £19.
Goldman Sachs is a seller of department store chain Debenhams (LON:DEB). The earnings growth outlook remains modest by European retail standards, driven by two profit headwinds.
Recent declines in the Debenhams UK store-based like-for-like sales are set to persist and together with the currency–driven gross margin headwind in 2017 and 2018 earnings look set to stay flat from here.
“This drives our sell rating on the shares,” said the US broker.
Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB.) continues to keep its fans happy despite a sky-high rating already for the Cillit Bang maker.
Liberum upgraded its share price target to 8,000p (from 7,250p) on the back of earnings upgrades of 3%/4%/6% over the next three years following yesterday’s bullish trading update.
Health and emerging markets were the stars, with margins, cashflow and dividends all heading in the right direction.
“We factor a £1bn ongoing share buyback post 2016 reflecting RB's desire to maintain net debt at £1.6bn,” said the broker.
Mexican silver and gold miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) reported a solid performance in its first quarter said Numis with production of 230,000oz of gold and 12.2Moz of silver.
Even so, the broker has reduced its rating to sell (from reduce) though the target price is unchanged at 800p.
Also on the resources front Dowgate has caught up with the soaring share price of Metal Tiger (LON:MTR).
With a share price now at 4.9p, the small cap broker has reassessed its valuation and come up with a total of £32mln or 6.25p against a now rather mean looking 2.42p previously.
With further Botswana drilling results anticipated, news on the potential Thailand mining joint venture awaited and possible updates from projects in the near term, ‘buy’ remains the Dowgate view.
Diamondcorp’s (LON:DCP) latest update from Lace in South Africa has provided more evidence of the quality of the diamonds the mine is capable of producing says Panmure Gordon.
Even so, after the latest production targets the broker has trimmed its target price to 14.5p from 15.7p.