Numis cuts Tate & Lyle from 'buy' to 'hold'

8th Apr 2015 10:50

Numis Securities has lowered its recommendation for Tate & Lyle from 'hold' to 'reduce', saying there is "little to excite" investors of the sweeteners and sugar group.The broker said there have been few surprises since the small profit warning from Tate in February for the fiscal year (FY) ended 31 March."It is unlikely that analysts' projections will be subject to anything other than marginal tweaks for both last FY and the current FY," Numis said.The broker has raised its target price for the shares from 540p to 563p ahead of Tate's annual results due 28 May."There is a possible 20.2p final dividend in late May that may attract the attention of income funds. However, aside from this income, and the chance that tough actions on Sucralose will prove a modest plus for sentiment, there seems little here to excite."Ahead of the results of a review into the Sucralose operations, Numis reckons that rather than sell the assets management will instead close the McIntosh facility in Alabama to load the modern Singapore facility more, and be highly selective regarding any future business undertaken.The stock was down 0.5% at 640p by 11:24.