Arbuthnot is very bullish and restates its strong buy recommendation: ‘ The financial result were released in early February, however the statements with annual report highlighted the exploration activities and potential of the group as they ‘hunt’ for new prospects, but more significantly included the annual statement of reserves and resources.
The reserves increased by […]

Citigroup repeats its buy and raises its price objective to 727p from 670p on the back of the Plus acquisition.
Broker says: ‘We continue to believe in the strong fundamental growth in Smith & Nephew and the efforts of the management team to improve profitability and shareholder value.’

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Gets a boost after chairman Peter Stephens bought 100,000 shares at 31.5p each, lifting his stake to 2.3pc.

The company’s broker Oriel Resources is heartened by the Wilson Field drilling update and restates its buy. The broker adds: ‘Pantheon holds an 31.77% interest in the well. Pre drill prognosis of a 9bcf prospect would be worth 23p per share in our view.’

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Evolution says buy upt to 200p after the MSI acquisition. Broker says: ‘ Paying an effective initial consideration of £4.5m (7x historic profits), with a performance related earn-out.  It is immediately earnings enhancing.’

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Charles Stanley says buy after the results. Broker adds: ‘ We have been long recommended TLR as a Buy on the basis of its underlying asset value. The current market capitalisation of £14m equates roughly to less than one times sales against an industry rule of thumb of valuing stations on twice sales.’

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Evolution says buy up to 12p - current price 3.87p. Broker adds: ‘Supported by net cash of £2.4m, excellent budgeting and financial controls and a strategy to add value with selective investments we expect further solid progress going forwards. Target price of 12p includes 9p for Filipina Grande, 2p for the remaining 4.8m shareholding […]

Nomura Code says buy, but warns: ‘The lack of news flow regarding the advancement of feasibility projects with
collaborators into development projects is a concern.
‘However Phoqus remains confident of achieving our forecast turnover of £5.2m this year as most of this relates to Chronocort
development and licensing fees.
‘Being contingent on a licensing deal, this revenue forecast is […]

Evolution says buy up to 64p. Broker adds: ‘The shares are currently trading below our base valuation of 24p, based on the historical exploration expenditure and the current cash position, which attributes no exploration upside.
‘The next 6 months should see significant drilling results from the Sutakiki prospect which are expected to confirm the presence of […]

Dresdner Kleinwort has downgraded to hold from buy and cut its price target to 192p from 211p after today’s interims. Broker says: ‘While the first half performance is expected to show good progress, order intake in recent weeks has faltered across Europe.
‘This raises questions over the second half outlook: at this stage we are not […]

Paul Deacon at Bridgewell has been doing some digging around Simon Wolfson’s share sale yesterday. Says he spoke to Next finance director David Keens, who claims Wolfson is not deliberately sending a message out to the market.
Deacon notes: ‘(The sale) represents 9% of his holding, the balance valued at £36m….. In any event, the sale […]

Evoltion says buy up to 128p. Says there two major catalysts - data on VR776 for premature ejaculation and phase IIb results for VR004, for erectile dysfunction.
‘If positive, they are expected to drive the share price in 2Q 07.
‘In our view, the VR776 data is of particular importance, as the product awaits PoC and is […]

Evoltion says buy up to 128p. Says there two major catalysts - data on VR776 for premature ejaculation and phase IIb results for VR004, for erectile dysfunction.
‘If positive, they are expected to drive the share price in 2Q 07.
‘In our view, the VR776 data is of particular importance, as the product awaits PoC and is […]

Belatedly Bridgewell has taken a scalpel to its recommendation going to underweight from overweight.
Broker says: ‘The new management team is little known by investors, unable to provide specific near- or long-term earnings guidance and appears to favour adopting a strategy that it admits will destroy shareholder value.
These factors are unlikely to help the company’s ongoing […]

Citigroup (hold; target price 575p) gives four persuasive reasons a bid isn’t likely.
1 -a potential bidder could not gain control of its most valuable asset - BBH which is 50% owned by Carlsberg, itself majority
controlled by a charitable Foundation
2- with 2006 net debt / EBITDA of 3.2x Scottish is not obviously under-leveraged
3 […]

Credit Suisse says outperform with a 736p a share price target despite the obvious disappointment of takeover talks collapsing. It adds: ‘We do not believe this precludes other potential transactions like the full acquisition of closed life companies that it has completed in the past or even a larger scale ‘business combination’ that may involve […]

Market not impressed with the news about profit margins in Europe, shares down sharply and responsible for the FTSE being dragged into negative territory. Deutsche Bank (hold; target price of 130p) says: ‘We feel there are still some consensus forecast downgrades to come.’ No shit!

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Panmure Gordon restates its buy advice after UTC bids £600m for the security business.
Broker says: ‘The sale price of the Electronic Security business was slightly below our expectations, but the important point is that the group is now more focused and is more easily digestible should a predator emerge.
‘The poison pill remains the Textile division, […]

Panmure Gordon has cut its recommendation to hold from add after interims which revealed spiralling cost pressures for plastic packaging co.

Dresdner Kleinwort upgrades to hold from reduce after the recent trading upate. Broker has lifted its price target t0 294p from 252p.