Thursday tips round-up: SSE, BTG, St Modwen

5th Apr 2012 06:52

In the Telegraph, Questor flirts with utility company SSE (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy). It said last week it was committed to dividend increases 2% above RPI, since then it has announced several big projects including the financial close on its Yorkshire waste contract worth £750m and a further £300m at its Ferrybridge power station (also in Yorkshire). Combined with a contract to develop a huge wind farm off the coast of the Shetland Islands and Questor admits the company is doing well. However, trading on a price to earnings multiple of 12.1 for 2012 and 11.1 the year after, the recommendation is still hold. Tempus in The Times mulls pharma firm BTG, which appears to have broken free from the cash burning cycle of simply developing medicines by instead focusing on the treatments it already owns and marketing them hard. Its main drugs are BeneFIX for haemophilia (which has come off patent) , CroFAB for snakebites and DigiFab, which helps patients recover from heart failure. But there have been promising results from other compounds, often bought by acquisitions. Tempus notes BTG doesn't have a decent price to earnings ratio, but thinks it's doing better than almost all its sector peers and may be a buy for the long term.Property developer St Modwen also gets the once over. It's suffered from a general caution on property stocks but has won impressive projects in New Covent Garden and Elephant and Castle worth £2bn. The shares have staged something of a recovery since the beginning of 2012 but Tempus says only buy on further weakness.Please note: Digital Look provides a round-up of news, tips and information that is impacting share prices and the market. Digital Look cannot take any responsibility for information provided by third parties. This is for your general information only as not intended to be relied upon by users in making an investment decision or any other decision. Please obtain a copy of the relevant publication and carry out your own research before considering acting on any of this information.BS