BEST OF THE BROKERS
PETROFAC
JP Morgan rates the oil and gas group as “overweight” with a target price of 1,479p after a meeting with management in which growth opportunities across the business were highlighted. The broker also sees an attractive bid pipeline, particularly in the integrated energy services and offshore engineering divisions, with a backlog of expansion in the latter supported by margin improvement as contracts improve.
INDITEX
Nomura rates the Spanish retail group as “neutral” with a target price of €66, saying it expects the company to report third-quarter earnings in line with its six week trading update. Over the second and third quarters Inditex has expanded its multi-channel online trading for all non-Zara brands across Europe, and launched Zara online in the US and Japan. The broker expects year on year sales growth of 5.6 per cent.
BANCO ESPIRITO SANTO
Citi rates the Portuguese banking group as “buy/high risk” and reduces its target price from €2.50 to €2.40 to reflect the long-term earnings dilution from the issue of 294.6m new shares. The issuance was part of an debt-for-equity swap between 14 and 20 November, which saw a total of €530m in new equity issued, with 48 per cent of the initial amount taken up by investors.