Sunday share tips: Card Factory, Direct Line, Epwin Group
3rd Apr 2016 14:33
(ShareCast News) - Shares in Card Factory are worth buying, said the Sunday Times' Inside the City column. Although its longstanding boss is about to retire and be replaced by discounter B&M's Karen Hubbard, she joins a company whose business model generates fistfuls of cash from an amazingly cheap
Read moreFTSE 100 movers: Aviva leads as it beats expectations
10th Mar 2016 14:39
(ShareCast News) - The FTSE 100 was trading in the red on Thursday afternoon, as the markets were left to digest surprise stimulus moves from the European Central Bank. Aviva was leading the risers, after it beat forecasts with a 20% operating profit increase. The insurer also reported a solvency ca
Read moreNomura upgrades Admiral to 'buy'
8th Mar 2016 10:40
(ShareCast News) - Nomura upgraded Admiral to 'buy' from 'neutral' and lifted the price target to 2,325p from 1,630p as it took a look at UK non-life insurers. The Japanese bank's two key reasons for upgrading the stock are exposure to rising UK motor rates and the potential to pay out excess capita
Read moreDisposal, investment in brands pays off for Direct Line
1st Mar 2016 08:47
(ShareCast News) - Direct Line Group reported on a year of success on Tuesday, with the 2015 disposal of its international business and ongoing investment in its own brands contributing to a solid calendar year of growth. The FTSE 100 insurer reported gross written premiums from ongoing operations a
Read moreSunday share tips: Direct Line, Laird, Brewin Dolphin
28th Feb 2016 14:58
(ShareCast News) - Direct Line shares are worth holding, said the Sunday Times' Inside the City column ahead of Tuesday's annual results for the insurer. Full year profits are forecast to have reversed moderately, but things look better going forward, with a new online marketing campaign launched la
Read moreDecember storms to cost Direct Line up to £140m
12th Jan 2016 07:04
(ShareCast News) - Direct Line Insurance Group estimates insurance claims for the series of storms in December will total between £110m to £140m. It followed Storm Desmond on December 5 to 6, Storm Eva on Christmas Eve, and Storm Frank on December 28 and 29, all of which caused severe flooding in pa
Read moreBroker tips: Spire Healthcare, RSA, European equtities
8th Jan 2016 10:49
(ShareCast News) - Investec recommended a 'sell' rating on Spire Healthcare and put its target price under review on Friday after the company reiterated its full year guidance. The private hospital group said in a trading update that it continues to expect 2015 revenue growth in the range of £882m t
Read moreNomura switches preference from Direct Line to RSA Insurance
8th Jan 2016 10:19
(ShareCast News) - Nomura downgraded Direct Line to 'neutral' from 'buy' while retaining its 400p price target, switching its preference in UK non-life to RSA Insurance, which it raised to 'buy' from 'neutral' with an unchanged price target of 495p. Nomura pointed out that DLG has been a star perfor
Read moreBroker tips: Royal Mail, M&S, UK insurers
4th Jan 2016 13:17
(ShareCast News) - Credit Suisse has cast doubt on rumours of a bid by Royal Mail for Dutch rival PostNL. In the run up to Christmas, there were newspaper reports that Royal Mail was preparing a €5 per share bid for PostNL, although this was denied by the Dutch company. Credit Suisse said it doubte
Read morePwC raises estimate on economic impact of UK floods
4th Jan 2016 12:55
(ShareCast News) - Consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Monday raised its estimates on the cost of the damage from last month's UK floods for the third time in a week. PwC predicted the economic impact of storms Desmond, Eva and Frank that swept through Britain in December was between £2 to £
Read moreFloods to hit RSA and Aviva harder than Direct Line, says UBS
4th Jan 2016 09:59
(ShareCast News) - UBS has estimated net losses of £150m to £308m from storms Desmond, Eva and Frank at RSA Insurance, Direct Line and Aviva, equivalent to 3%, 2% and 1% of market caps respectively. The bank noted that KPMG has put the economic cost at £5bn and insured losses at £1.5bn from the firs
Read moreLondon pre-open: StanChart beats third quarter forecasts
3rd Nov 2015 07:53
(ShareCast News) - Shares were expected to rise at the start of the session, taking their cue from overnight gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones Industrials move back into positive territory for the year and the S&P clamber back atop its mid-August highs. The Footsie was seen starting the da
Read moreDirect Line Group reiterates forecast for 2015 combined operating ratio
3rd Nov 2015 07:29
(ShareCast News) - Direct Line Group posted a 3.1% increase in total written gross premiums for the three months to 30 September, led by a 6.8% increase in Motor. That came alongside a 7% drop in total costs for ongoing operations, while investment income yield rose to 2.4%. For the nine months to
Read moreBroker tips: Card Factory, Direct Line, Serco
11th Aug 2015 14:03
(ShareCast News) - Broker Peel Hunt reiterated its 'buy' recommendation for Card Factory, saying the retailer was one of its top picks for the sector, especially as it was "all systems go" for the upcoming special dividend. First-half results from the FTSE 250 group indicated a 1% acceleration in th
Read moreCharles Stanley downgrades Direct Line to reduce
11th Aug 2015 09:39
(ShareCast News) - Analysts at Charles Stanley downgraded insurer Direct Line Group to 'reduce' from 'hold', and advised investors to take profits. The brokerage moved its price target up to 387.8p from 350p. Shares in Direct Line were trading at 383.7p at 0951 BST, having lost 1.06% since the marke
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