Swiss broker UBS says it remains confident of Merlin Entertainments PLC's (LON:MERL) recovery potential for 2016/17 and has repeated a 'buy'.
It comes after the Swiss broker analysed around 300,000 customer reviews of the Alton Tower's owner's attractions, including 108,000 reviews written in 2015 alone.
Merlin is reportedly facing a multi-million pound fine after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety law last month following an accident at Alton Towers last year.
Last week said group trading in the year to date was broadly in line with expectations.
It said new accommodation was progressing well, with an extension of the Legoland Deutschland Holiday Village already open, and further developments at Gardaland, Chessington World of Adventures and Warwick Castle set to open in coming weeks.
UBS said: "The analysis in this report helps us to answer the pivotal questions of how trading will recover at Alton Towers (and in Resort Theme Parks more broadly) and in the Midway division.
"While we cut our forecasts by 1-3% to reflect weaker trends in London for the Midway division, we remain confident in Merlin's recovery potential in 2016/17, and reiterate our Buy rating. Merlin remains our preferred UK Leisure name." The target price drops 20p to 510p (current price:417.10p).
Elsewhere, City firm Cantor has donned overalls and upgraded Topps Tiles (LON:TPT) to 'buy' from 'hold' and repeated a target of 160p.
Freddie George, retail analyst, said: "We are upgrading our recommendation following the recent softness of the share price since the beginning of the year. The company has an excellent track record , reasonable operational gearing ion the earnings, a progressive dividend policy and a supportive macro-economic environment."
Meanwhile, Citi Group has flown its EPS estimates upwards for budget carrier Ryanair (LON:RYA) by the tune of an impressive 25% for 2017, 15% for 2018 and 13% in 2019.
"Already the largest intra-Europe airline with market share expected to increase further — We expect Ryanair to increase market share to 14.1% in 2016 from 13.3% in 2015. Revenue upside from further 'Always Getting Better' (AGB) initiatives, now in its third year," notes analyst Andrew Light.
In other analyst news, Deutsche has rowed across the channel and homed in on UK banks, and adjusted its ratings in the light of higher PPI payouts - payment protection insurance - and a "lower for longer" NIM (net interest margin) environment.
"Overall adjusted earnings for Barclays, Lloyds and RBS fall 2-3% in 2018, and we reduce our TPs slightly. Despite PPI, Lloyds remains our preferred stock of the large caps (TP 78p)," it said.
For Lloyds (LON:LLOY) the target goes to 78p from 79p; for Barclays (LON:BARC) , it is dropped to 175p from 180p and for RBS (LON:RBS) lowered to 239p from 242p.
Home repair and insurance group HomeServe PLC (LON:HSV) beat broker Liberum's estimates in its final results as profits and customer numbers grew.
For the year to end March, the group posted a pre-tax profit of £93mln, which was 9% up on last year and against a Liberum estimate of £91.9mln.
Revenues increased 8% to £633mln and EBIT increased 10%, or 13% adjusting for the £2.2mln foreign exchange head-wind, the broker noted.
Cantor Fitzgerald has reworked its figures for Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD) after the recent placing to fund a new gold mine in Argentina.
The short term operation at Cap-Oeste should be highly cash generative and could form the basis of a longer term development including the neighbouring COSE project.
Exploration is also to be stepped up. Buy with a target price of 3p, said Cantor.