Broker tips: Whitbread, GKN, Aveva

12th Sep 2014 12:35

UBS has downgraded leisure group Whitbread from 'neutral' to 'sell', saying that the hotel industry is "under threat"."While we estimate 55% of Whitbread clients travel for business and the company operates in the UK midscale and economy segment we do not think they will be immune from some of the impact from shared accommodation," the bank said.GKN's shares were given a boost on Friday by Barclays Capital which lifted its stance on the shares from 'equal weight' to 'overweight', saying that the "stars appear to be aligning" for the engineering company.However, it added: "It looks like GKN is about to enjoy that rare moment when a diverse range of businesses are all in positive earnings trends."Investec has placed its 'buy' recommendation for Aveva under review after a gloomy trading statement from the engineering software firm, with the broker saying it will have to re-base its earnings forecasts."Aveva has announced a surprise profit warning, flagging not only previously announced factors (rental timing, FX) which are not a concern to us, but also indicating some underlying weakness in its core market, which is more worrying," said Investec analysts Julian Yates and Roger Phillips.