Broker tips: Petrofac, REITs, Ashtead

4th Sep 2012 11:49

Following a period of weakness, Credit Suisse has upgraded its rating on the shares of oilfield services group Petrofac from 'neutral' to 'outperform' and raised its target price from 1,750p to 1,800p."We believe the stock has performed poorly on a lack of project awards over the summer period and elevated expectations for the IES business. We believe the next few months will be better: awards should step up, thanks to less instability in the Middle East, and the payoff of extensive marketing efforts in southeast Asia and amongst oil majors," the broker said on Tuesday morning.UBS says that investors should hold an 'equal-weight' position in the European real estate market, but has recommended to 'underweight the UK'.The broker has upgraded both Hammerson and Capital Shopping Centres to 'buy', saying that both stocks are "pricing in lower returns, but missing the lower risk profile.""We downgrade Land Securities and British Land to 'neutral' (valuation appropriate for their risk-return profiles). We downgrade SEGRO to 'neutral' (we like the dividend yield, but are cautious on net asset value)."Shares in plant hire firm Ashtead surged on Tuesday morning after the firm raised its full-year guidance, leading broker Peel Hunt to upgrade its forecasts for the group.On Peel Hunt's revised estimates, Ashtead trades at 12.1 times prospective earnings per share, equal to 4.8 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), compared with a historical mid-cycle range of 5-6x."Given this early stage of the recovery, we see further outperformance from re-rating as well as scope for further positive earnings surprises," Nussey said.BC