Brokers seemed bullish on gold miners on Tuesday despite the gold price easing lower over the past week.
Deutsche Bank reiterated its ‘buy’ recommendation Acacia Mining PLC (LON:ACA) and moved its target price up to 570p.
The bank says it expects “Bulyanhulu [a gold project in north-west Tanzania] to mine more ore and Buzwagi [another gold project in north-west Tanzania] to deliver more ounces.
Deutsche expects Acacia’s Bulyanhulu gold project in Tanzania to be able to process more ore “now that the power supply has stabilised”, while another of the miner’s Tanzanian gold projects, Buzwagi, should “deliver more ounces”.
Deutsche adds that “Acacia offers the highest operating leverage among our gold miners”.
Investec Securities upgraded fellow gold miner Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) to a ‘buy’ recommendation from ‘hold’.
The bank says it is a fan of the precious metal given its “increasingly attractive…safe(r) haven characteristics” and gold therefore remains its “favoured commodity”, hence the vote of confidence in the gold miner.
As a result of yesterday’s takeover news, ARM Holdings PLC (LON:ARM) was popular in this morning’s broker, with the majority taking a bearish view on the stock.
Exane BNP Paribas advised investors to take profits as it downgraded its rating to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’, while Kepler Cheuvreux moved the stock lower to a ‘hold’ recommendation from ‘buy’, telling shareholders to “accept the offer once it has been formalised”.
Others also were bearish on the stock, as Morgan Stanley lowered its rating from ‘overweight’ to ‘equal weight’, while Canaccord Genuity downgraded its recommendation to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’.
There was some respite for the British semiconductor and software designer though, as Citi raised its target price to 1700p, in line with the takeover offer from Softbank, which it expects to go through.
Elsewhere, some other big firms caught the attention of the brokers today.
Coca-Cola HBC AG (LON:CCH) had its ‘overweight’ rating reiterated by JP Morgan Cazenove, with the broker upping its share price target to 1800p from 1500p.
The investment bank says the beverage bottling sector has proved itself to be “resilient” and considers Coco-Cola HBC AG to be “best placed in this environment”.
Deutsche Bank slashed its price target for the builders’ merchant Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) to 1906p from 2220p, although it repeated its ‘buy’ recommendation.
The bank believes the firm will suffer from any potential Brexit fall-out and says the uncertainty of Brexit is likely to weigh heavy on investor sentiment.
Despite reducing its forecasts for Travis Perkins because of this unknown impact from Brexit, Deutsche says it can still value in the stock, hence the ‘buy’ recommendation.
Luxury clothing brand Burberry Group PLC (LON:BRBY) received a little boost from Credit Suisse, with the Swiss Bank nudging its price target for the stock up to 1150p from 1000p.
The bank is raising its earnings forecasts due to currency, with the lower GBP/USD exchange bolstering the figures.
It does maintain its doubts about the stock, commenting that it “does not look cheap” and believes the firm is potentially a year away from properly bringing in its new CEO Marco Gobbetti.
In the small caps, finnCap was bullish about the prospects of gold miner Shanta Gold Limited (LON:SHG), reiteratingits ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 12p.
The broker said Shanta’s operating results from its New Luika gold mine for the second quarter were “steady”