Friday tips round-up: Charter, RSA, Tate & Lyle...

5th Nov 2010 06:49

Charter shares have been the subject of much bid gossip these past couple of weeks, with an American predator mentioned. They remain on a lowly nine times this year's earnings. That might look cheap; but unless you fancy a punt on a takeover, there seems little reason to chase says the Times.Housebuilders have underperformed the market by 18% over the past three months because the market cannot see any reason for any improvement in sales volumes. Redrow shares are selling on about 70% of net assets, which suggests good value. But there is no real reason to buy at this stage says the Times.On valuation, insurer RSA is not cheap. The shares trade on about 1.3 times net asset value, which is pricey compared to some of the Lloyd's of London insurers. But RSA carries far less business risk, and the earnings multiple (less than 10) and the prospective yield (a very impressive 6.7%) are points in the shares' favour. Hold says the Independent.Tate & Lyle's half-yearly results told of a strong business. Tate defied forecasts with a 21% rise in adjusted pre-tax profits and said it was confident of making progress over the full year period. Add in a healthy forecast yield of about 4.7% for 2011 and the shares are a buy says the Independent.Shares in hotel group Millennium & Copthorne have surged over the past year and now trade on a lofty multiple of 15 times 2011 forecast earnings. But that's behind the long-term average and the shares are only just above the adjusted book value of its assets (562p a share). Hold for now says the Independent.One of the most important tasks a company has to do is manage market expectations. Petropavlovsk has not done this. Yet again, the company has cut its production forecast for the current year - blaming the weather and a delay in the delivery of equipment. The shares are trading on a December 2010 earnings multiple of 16, falling to 9.5 next year. However, it is likely the forecast will be trimmed and these multiples will move higher. The prospective yield is 0.2%. Hold says the Telegraph.