Broker tips: Lloyds, AstraZeneca, Betfair

10th Jun 2013 10:48

Investec has retained its 'sell' rating and 50p target price for part-nationalised lender Lloyds as speculation continues to increase ahead of a potential reprivatisation.The broker said it sees "little justification for the share price to react favourably" under the proposal from the Policy Exchange - which would see 70% of the government's holding sold to institutional/private shareholders and 30% sold to the public at no cost.Panmure Gordon has retained its 'hold' rating and 3,200p target price for biopharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, but celebrated the company's $560m acquisition of Pearl Therapeutics on Monday, a necessary move in the broker's opinion."Some might choke on the price of the asset, but to us AstraZeneca's acquisition of Pearl Therapeutics was strategically important and had to be done," said analyst Savvas Neophytou. He said that Astra's respiratory business represents just 16% of revenues and its pipeline was "threadbare".Betfair's share price surged on Monday morning after Citigroup upgraded its rating for the online gaming group from 'neutral' to 'buy', saying that the stock's valuation looks attractive compared with the wider sector.The broker said that Betfair's rejection of a sweetened 950p-a-share bid from CVC Capital Partners last month has "led us to consider that there could be considerably more upside to pricing changes than we had initially expected".