BEST OF THE BROKERS
Halfords
UBS expects the car and bike retailer to post full year profits in line with expectations when it reports its results to the market next week. Halfords has struggled amid tough trading conditions for retailers. UBS said good weather over Easter will have helped the retailer’s sales, but also expects Halfords to put out a “cautious outlook statement” for the year ahead. The broker gives the retail chain a price target of 380p per share.
IMI
Citigroup rates the group as its top pick in the UK engineers, and sees it as an attractive multi-year investment driven by accelerated growth and margin expansion. The broker expects margin targets to be achieved by the end of 2013 and sees further upside potential, so raises its target price to £13.50 based on an enterprise-value-to-sales of 1.9x12E in line with its 19 per cent margin expectation in 2012.
Wincor Nixdorf
Goldman Sachs is bullish on the retail banking technology provider, after a poor performance by the German company. It rates the firm Conviction Buy, as it believes the risk-reward balance in investing in the company to be positive after a weaker than expected March quarter. Goldman said strong cashflow generation at the company will enable it to consistently return capital to shareholders. Its target price for shares of the company is €73.