It's German bank Berenberg's turn to look at Primark owner Associated British Foods Plc (LON:ABF) and it downgrades the share to 'hold' from 'buy' but does lift the target price.
Yesterday, ABF was upgraded to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’ by RBC Capital, which also placed a 3,400p price target on the food and clothing group - a healthy distance from the current price of 3,047p.
In the recent third quarter trading update, ABF said it “no longer expects” to see a decline in the group’s EPS due to the positive translation effect of excluding-UK profits and no material impact on margins.
Berenberg noted on Wednesday that ABF shares are up 25% since hitting a post-Brexit vote low of 2,350p on June 27, when the broker upgraded the stock to 'buy' on valuation grounds.
Now it has updated its forecasts to reflect the prospects for a recovery in ABF’s Sugar division profitability based on current market spot rates.
It sees little short term upside for the stock and thus raises the price target to 3,000p but downgrades to 'Hold'.
Bikes and car parts store Halfords Group PLC (LON:HFD) is also in the cross hairs today - of banking giant HSBC, which also lowers it to 'hold' from 'buy'.
Also in brokerville midweek, heavyweight Goldman Sachs takes a red pen to one of Britain's big four supermarkets WM Morrison (LON:MRW) - cutting it to 'sell' from 'neutral'.
Petrofac plc (LON:PFC), the oil services group, also gets a leg-up from banking group Barclays (LON:BARC) today, which repeats an 'over weight' recommendation on the shares, and lifts the target price to 1,250p from 1,165p.
Barclays says it's keeping the group as its 'top pick' and that an inflection point is now here.
"Petrofac is steadily putting its issues behind it: the Laggan-Tormore project is finalized; monetization of its IES portfolio has kicked off; and the Greater Stella project approaches cash generation phase," it said.
"In the meantime, execution in the core E&C business remains on-track as net margins are resilient while working capital build reflects the phasing of the project portfolio. The last hurdle appears to be the order intake. As ever, timing of awards is uncertain, but the company seems confident that four or five projects are close and that bidding in aggregate is at robust levels."