Broker tips: Prudential, G4S, N Brown, African Barrick Gold

12th Mar 2014 12:17

Broker Hargreaves Lansdown highlighted Prudential's upbeat prospects after "sparkling" annual results and said the City regarded it as a 'strong buy'."Prudential's ability to capitalise on its financial strength and geographical diversity is self-evident and the market is equally buoyed by its prospects - the consensus has recently strengthened further and now comes in at a strong buy."Analysts at Panmure Gordon have recommended investors 'sell' shares of security solutions firm G4S after the company's annual results missed forecasts. The broker maintained its 200p target price for the stock, which implies 18% downside from current levels."We anticipate further pressure on consensus estimates on the back of these results and maintain our cautious stance on the shares for now."UBS has downgraded its rating for N Brown, the online and catalogue home shopping group, from 'neutral' to 'sell', raising concerns with competition from some well-known High Street names.The bank said that N Brown's aim is to push clothes designed specifically for plus-sized customers into the larger end of mainstream clothing markets. "However, the size 16-18 women's clothing market is the stomping ground of some of the industry heavyweights, such as M&S, Next and Debenhams, and this move away from their differentiated, core niche increases the risk." The 17% share price slump of African Barrick Gold (ABG) has created a buying opportunity, according to Canaccord Genuity on Wednesday. The broker kept a 'buy' recommendation and 315p target price for ABG."We believe the magnitude of the price drop was exacerbated by the profit taking following the best performance among UK peers since mid-2013. The fall we think opens up a buying opportunity," said analysts Dmitry Kalachev and Peter Mallin-Jones.BC