BEST OF THE BROKERS
BARCLAYS
Citigroup released a note on UK banks yesterday, maintaining its overall overweight rating on the sector. The broker named Barclays its top pick in the sector, with a “buy” rating and an increase in its target price from 245p to 275p. In the same note, Citi maintained its “buy” rating on Lloyds, HSBC and Standard Chartered, but downgraded RBS to “neutral” with a target price of 30p.
PERSIMMON
Panmure Gordon downgrades the housing group from “buy” to “hold” following a strong performance in the share price since the start of the year. The broker also ups its target price on the stock from 545p to 560p, and says it still sees it as a good quality business that it expects to report a strong period of trading when it releases preliminary results on 28 February. Panmure considers Barratts, Taylor Wimpey and Galliford Try as better value.
CAIRN ENERGY
JP Morgan Cazenove downgrades the oil & gas group from “overweight” to “neutral” and drops its target price from 480p to 385p. The broker said that although the shares look cheap relative to the company’s core net asset value, it struggles to see near term catalysts that could bring about a material re-rating. JP Morgan says drilling on Greenland is unlikely before mid 2013-2014 at the earliest and would rather wait to see how Cairn uses its cash.