Broker tips: Antofagasta, Premier Oil, Britvic

25th Aug 2011 12:55

UBS has cut its target price for Antofagasta by 110p after the South America-focused copper (Cu) miner's first half earnings came in below forecasts."We are attracted by ANTO's low cost position/ strong management, but remain cautious on Cu prices near-term [...] We expect ANTO to focus more on growth medium-term, increasing risk of sustainability of special dividend."However, UBS has slashed its EPS targets for the full year by 18%, and by 21% in 2012, reflecting expensing of the Esperanza interest, exploration and other costs.A neutral rating was kept.Matrix says that there was little to excite in Premier Oil's first half results and the market is "unlikely to give any value now to exploration"."The problem for Premier remains a lack of significant exploration success and for that reason, it is hard to see the market giving any value to that part of the company until substantial success is demonstrated. We are not convinced that the drilling programme over the next six months offers the level of scale or the likely success rate to provide that impetus," said analyst Charlie Sharp.Even so, Matrix says that the stock is currently trading at a 20% discount to its core valuation of 440p. "On that basis, for the patient investor, we maintain our buy rating." The target price is left at 510p.It may be coincidence that the streets of London were soaked with rain this morning, but Nomura has chosen today to revise ts earnings estimates for soft-drinks firm Britvic, to factor in Europe's miserable weather.The Japanese broker thinks Britvic's fourth quarter (to September) will be weak, given the poor weather - "especially in Britain", analyst Ian Shackleton notes.Despite the gloomier earnings outlook, Nomura still thinks the company will reward patient shareholders with an 8% increase in the final dividend, in line with the increase in the interim dividend. Based on Nomura's earnings projections, this would see dividend cover falling to 1.9."On our new estimates the shares trade on a calendar 2012 PER [price/earnings ratio] of 8.4x and offer a FY11 [full-year 2011] dividend yield of 5.8%," Nomura said, as it reiterated its "buy" recommendation, despite cutting its price target to 415p from 480p. BC