Best of the Brokers
PETROFAC
Credit Suisse upgraded oilfield services group Petrofac’s share rating to “outperform” from “neutral” with an increased target price of 1,800p, up from 1,750p. It believes Petrofac has performed poorly on a lack of project awards over the summer period but said “the next few months will be better”, and expects awards step up, thanks to less instability in the Middle East and extensive marketing efforts in south east Asia.
VODAFONE
Bernstein has downgraded Vodafone from “outperform” to “market perform” and cut its target price from 215p to 170p. Bernstein said the telecoms giant’s share price has long been strongly correlated with service revenue momentum but expects service revenues to turn negative for the first time since March 2010 in the second quarter of the year. As a result it expects the share price to follow.
HAMMERSON
UBS upgraded Hammerson from “neutral” to “buy” alongside its peer, Capital Shopping Centres, yesterday and raised the target price to 490p from 480p. The bank said some safer names such as Hammerson “have been forgotten” and ranked the firm as its top pick in the UK real estate sector. It believes the shares are pricing in lower returns, but missing the lower risk profile.