Broker tips: Lloyds Banking, ENRC, Lookers

19th Aug 2009 12:46

Long suffering shareholders of Lloyds Banking Group can look forward to the bank resuming dividend payments next year, analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) predict.RBS believes its fellow part-nationalised bank is on the recovery trail and its finances should be sufficiently restored to pay a nominal dividend in 2010 while the company could have scope to improve the pay out substantially in 2011 as a result of improved margins, lower write-downs and tighter cost controls.RBS has upgraded Lloyds to 'buy' from 'hold' and lifted its price target from 60p to 150p. The shares represent a 'compelling restructuring opportunity,' RBS reckons.Results from Kazakhstan-focused miner Eurasian Natural Resources pleased the market Wednesday morning, with the profit figure coming in 'well over expectations' according to Deutsche Bank.Deutsche Bank (DB) had been expecting underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $449m for the first half of 2009 and so was pleasantly surprised when the company announced EBITDA of $628m, helped by lower inflation in Kazakhstan and significant foreign exchange gains.DB has reiterated its 'buy' recommendation.Morgan Stanley also liked the results and said the EBITDA came in 6% higher than it had been expecting.Interim pre-tax profits from car dealer Lookers came in ahead of KBC Peel Hunt's expectations, prompting the broker to upgrade its full-year profit forecast by 43%.Lookers reported half-year profit before tax of £17.6m, £1.3m higher than KBC had been expecting. The broker is now forecasting full-year pre-tax profits of £24.6m, while next year's profit forecast has been ramped up 10% to £29.7m.KBC Peel Hunt has a 'buy' recommendation on the stock and has lifted its price target to 80p from 65p.