Charles Stanley upgrades Travis Perkins despite Q3 slowdown

17th Oct 2014 10:55

Travis Perkins' shares were dented on Friday by the news of a slowdown in growth in the third quarter, but analysts at Charles Stanley remained optimistic, upgrading the stock from 'hold' to 'accumulate'.The UK building merchant faced some tough comparative figures from the year before, but still grew total sales grew 6.9% and like-for-like sales 5.7%, though this was down from the 10.2% for the first six months of the year.While the plumbing and heating division produced a weaker-than-expected outcome, the largest division, general merchanting, performed well."Although the pace of growth has slowed in the third quarter compared to the first half it is still quite a healthy rate of growth especially given that the comparative quarter was also strong," said Charles Stanley's Tony Shepard."Clearly, Travis Perkins operates in a cyclical industry which has some positive momentum and it has a number of investment and self-help initiatives underway which should improve its financial performance this year and next."After a 17% fall from its peak, the stock "now appears to offer some value", Shepard said.The shares were down 1.7% at 1,610p by 11:15.