Best of the Brokers
TUI TRAVEL
Panmure Gordon’s Simon French has reiterated his “sell” rating on TUI Travel ahead of Thursday’s interim results statement. Issuing a target price of 245p, he believes the aborted bid from TUI AG “highlighted that the parent company does not want to pay a premium for control of this minority”. Despite this he expects a strong update as Britons booked foreign holidays due to the miserable weather at the end of 2012.
TATE & LYLE
Alicia Forry at Canaccord Genuity has restated her “buy” rating on Tate & Lyle with a target price of 900p, despite Friday’s results failing to meet expectations. In spite of strong price increases in the US market the company was hit by a decline in the European market for artificial sweetener Sucralose. Canaccord Genuity insists the “shares are still trading at a discount to our sum-of-the-parts based valuation”.
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
Several brokers downgraded oil giant Shell following last week’s results but Theepan Jothilingam at Numis has issued a “buy” rating with a target price of 2,500p. He has concerns about the performance of the oil giants but says Shell is the best of the bunch due to “long-term growth options within a deep and impressive resource base together with a strong technology set”.