Broker tips: HSBC, Royal Mail, Aggreko, Aviva

7th Mar 2014 11:39

Goldman Sachs has removed HSBC from its 'conviction buy' list and reduced its profit forecasts following the bank's 2013 results last week. Goldman maintained a 'buy' recommendation for the stock, but lowered its target price to 740p from 900p.Analysts have cut their estimates for 2014 to 2017 on the back of "weak operating trends" in the fourth quarter, accounting changes with regard to HSBC's stake in Chinese lender Bank of Communications (BoCom) and uncertainties surrounding regulatory adjustments to capital requirements.JPMorgan Cazenove has reiterated an 'overweight' recommendation for postal service giant Royal Mail Group and lifted its target price by nearly a tenth after reassessing the group's pension liabilities.The bank raised its target from 700p to 765p, which implies around 30% upside to current prices.Temporary power and temperature control firm Aggreko was pulling back slightly on Friday after strong gains the day before as UBS lowered its price target for the stock on the back of currency movements following its 2013 results."Management expects 2014 trading profit in constant currency terms to be at a similar level to 2013, but given movements in FX, there is likely to be a marked translational impact on 2014 reported results," the bank said, reducing its price target from 1,680p to 1,550p.Barclays has lifted its target price for insurance group Aviva from 380p to 415p after the company beat expectations with its annual results, though the bank still kept an 'underweight' recommendation on the stock on valuation concerns.While the bank admitted that Aviva has "made much more progress over a reasonably short period of time than we had originally envisaged", the stock trades at nearly 12 times earnings estimates for 2014, which is "no longer cheap" compared with the wider sector.BC