Broker tips: Royal Mail, Vodafone, M&S, Smiths Group, Booker, Aveva

21st May 2015 11:30

Royal Mail's full year results were given the stamp of approval by analysts at Deutsche Bank and Shore Capital on Thursday, although there remained caution about the highly competitive environment.ShoreCap retained a 'buy' rating, while Deutsche Bank reiterated its 'hold' stance on the shares and target price of 400p. Deutsche pointed out that RMG trades on a calendarised 2016 expected dividend yield of roughly 4%, which compares with Austrian Post, "which faces less transformational headwinds", on 4.6%.Vodafone shares continued to advance on Thursday on speculation about a possible tie-up with Liberty Global, with Nomura providing an extra boost by lifting its stance on the stock from 'reduce' to 'neutral'.The broker hiked its target price from 185p to 235p, saying it sees a potential break-up of the UK telecoms titan. "Vodafone's slow standalone progress and potential need to extend its investment phase and reset its dividend should give its board cause to consider alternative routes for value creation," Nomura said.Barclays has upgraded Marks & Spencer to 'equalweight' from 'underweight' and pushed the target price to 600p from 390p following the company's full-year results on Wednesday."While we are still concerned with a long lasting trend of market share losses in General Merchandise, which we consider structural, we recognise a benign gross margin and returns outlook over the next three years which no longer warrants our negative stance on earnings," said Barclays.Credit Suisse has cut its rating for Smiths Group to 'neutral' and lowered its target price from 1,270p to 1,250p, saying it sees limited upside.The bank said that the scope for "portfolio rationalisation" at Smiths Group is the stock's key attraction, given its current conglomerate structure and undemanding valuation. However, current management changes mean that there is unlikely to be any decisions to realise this value in the near term, it said.Investec has lifted its target price for Booker at the food wholesaler's annual results beat forecasts, saying that the proposed acquisition of Londis and Budgens represents a "strong fit" to the business.The broker reiterated its 'buy' recommendation on the stock, saying that if the deal is cleared by regulators it "would significant extend the group's symbol outlet network and enhance its delivery capability".Citigroup downgraded its stance on Aveva to 'neutral' from 'buy' saying the valuation is up with events.While it continues to believe that Aveva is a high quality mid-cap name, Citi said that after the recent run - the shares are up 53% year-to-date - driven at least in part by ongoing bid speculation, the shares are trading at a significant premium to historic multiples.