Investec upgrades Weir Group to 'hold' off management guidance

3rd Aug 2015 11:08

(ShareCast News) - Analysts at Investec upgraded their rating for Weir Group to 'hold' from 'sell' and kept a price target of 1450p.Investec analyst Thomas Rands said forecasts for the engineering group were updated off new management guidance which resulted in a 10% downgrade to its 2015 full year adjusted pre-tax profit.Rands said Investec continued to forecast an earnings recovery for financial year 2016 but it would be relatively limited.He said Weir Group was close to the bottom of the earnings downgrade cycle prompting an upgrade, but Investec could not upgrade to 'buy' as it expected Weir's oil & gas division to recover slowly.While first half trading was moderately better than anticipated, oil and gas overseas input orders and minerals after market orders were both worse than expected, Investec said.It noted pricing pressure remained on minerals but volumes were currently strong enough to offset this.Shares in Weir group were down by 1.37% to 1,516p at 1026 BST.