Broker snap: UBS stays confident about Hays

7th Oct 2011 12:36

UBS has reiterated its buy rating on recruitment firm Hays, after its first quarter "confounded gloomy expectations".However, the target price is cut from 105p to 100p, after accounting for foreign exchange movements in the last five weeks.Nevertheless, the broker says that its underlying growth and margin assumptions are unchanged, since Hays reported strong growth in the first three months of the year, "including the key post-holiday late August and September period".UBS does highlight the group's caution on recent economic developments: "Despite the strong performance and momentum, the company remains mindful of current economic uncertainty (especially as this can take some time to feed in to candidate confidence). We would expect this to be reflected in lower consultant headcount additions in Q2 than the +6% seen in Q1."At 12:41 on Friday, shares were 1.72% down at 71.3p.BC