Monday broker round-up
2nd Nov 2015 13:20
(ShareCast News) - Crest Nicholson Holdings: JP Morgan Cazenove upgrades to overweight, raises target price to 650.00p. Lancashire Holdings Limited: Citigroup downgrades to neutral. Target price: 675.00p. Easyjet: HSBC downgrades to reduce. Target price: 1600.00p. Barratt Developments: JP Morgan C
Read moreFTSE 250 movers: Amlin surges on Sumitomo deal, Home Retail drops on downgrade
8th Sep 2015 14:31
(ShareCast News) - London's mid-cap index was up 1.2% to 17,037.67 on Tuesday, tracking broader gains in the market as investors took comfort from a better-than-expected report on Chinese exports. Shares in Amlin surged after Japan's Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company said it has agreed to buy the UK
Read moreLancashire shares drop on 33% fall in premiums
29th Jul 2015 10:44
(ShareCast News) - Insurance company Lancashire Holdings wrote a third fewer insurance premiums in the first half of this year from $635.1m to $423.6m gross written premiums. Shares in the company fell 4.17% to 643p at 1004, following its second half result posted Wednesday. The board declared a di
Read moreCredit Suisse downgrades Hiscox on valuation grounds
14th Jul 2015 10:41
(ShareCast News) - Credit Suisse downgraded Hiscox to 'underperform' from 'neutral' but raised its target price on the stock to 720p from 655p. "Whilst we continue to believe that Hiscox's exposure to retail customers has the ability to offset partly the negative trends seen at peers, the group trad
Read moreWednesday broker round-up
27th May 2015 07:57
Beazley: JP Morgan upgrades to overweight from neutral and sets 308p target, up from 255p. Hiscox: JP Morgan upgrades to overweight from neutral and ups target to 950p from 801p. Lancashire Holdings: JP Morgan improves target price to 642p from 589p, stays at neutral. Dixons Carphone: Exane keeps
Read moreFTSE 250 movers: Indivior surges on schizophrenia drug success, insurers lower
5th May 2015 13:22
Indivior topped the risers despite pre-tax profit dipping in the first quarter, as its RBP-7000 schizophrenia drug met the primary and secondary endpoints in its phase 3 trial. Just Eat was making gains as it unveiled strong first quarter results, where like-for-like orders grew 47%. Miners includ
Read moreLancashire Holdings well positioned to deal with pressure on insurance rates
30th Apr 2015 11:09
Insurance group Lancashire Holdings said pre-tax profit declined in the first quarter, but it remained better equipped to deal with pressure on insurance rates than its sector peers. The FTSE 250 group reported an 11% drop year-on-year in pre-tax profit to $51.5m (£33.4m) for the three months to 31
Read moreFTSE 250 movers: Retailers and energy stocks surge, ex-dividend insurers lower
19th Mar 2015 13:44
Supergroup made strong gains after Investec said a focus on retail execution and UK profit maximisation was a "major opportunity". The broker reiterated its 'buy' rating, with analyst Kate Calvert adding: "We see material growth opportunities, not only in maximising UK profitability by optimising it
Read moreSector movers: RSA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Direct Line drag non-life insurers lower
3rd Mar 2015 15:28
Non-life insurers were out of favour on Tuesday as a broker downgrade at RSA and a cool reaction to results from Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Direct Line weighed on sentiment. General insurer RSA was trading 2.7% lower after analysts at Bernstein lowered their rating on the stock from 'outperform' to
Read moreNumis sees further upside at Lancashire after stellar Q4
12th Feb 2015 10:01
Insurer Lancashire Holdings smashed City forecasts with its fourth-quarter results on Thursday, which should improve confidence in expectations for 2015, according to Numis Securities. The broker, which kept a 'buy' rating on the stock, said that the shares had become "over-sold" and hold "further r
Read moreLancashire declares surprise special dividend and strong final results
12th Feb 2015 08:15
Insurer Lancashire Group pleased investors with a bumper set of final results and a large surprise special dividend of $0.50 per share. A lower level of catastrophe and attritional losses in the fourth quarter led to a combined ratio (COR) of 68.7% for the full year, with a return on equity (RoE) of
Read moreFTSE 250 Movers: Transport surges, energy sector dips
27th Nov 2014 14:31
Stagecoach saw shares surge after its 90%-owned joint venture with Virgin Rail won the contract from the Department for Transport to run the new InterCity East Coast franchise for eight years from March 2015. Shares also jumped for plastic packaging supplier RPC, following the announcement of its
Read moreTuesday broker round-up UPDATE
11th Nov 2014 09:55
AdEPT Telecom: WH Ireland moves target price from 170p to 185p, keeping its buy recommendation. Northland moves target price from 165p to 175p and maintains a buy recommendation. Betfair: JP Morgan raises target price from 1175p to 1350p and upgrades from neutral to overweight. BHP Billiton: JP Mor
Read moreThursday broker round-up UPDATE
6th Nov 2014 10:01
Amec: UBS cuts target price from 1185p to 1150p, while its buy recommendation remains unchanged. Afren: Liberum Capital cuts target price from 121p to 95p and stays with its hold recommendation. Antofagasta: Canaccord cuts target price from 790p to 760p and reiterates a hold recommendation. Associ
Read moreSector movers: Admiral drags non-life insurers lower on subdued premiums
13th Aug 2014 15:31
Poorly-received first-half numbers from Admiral were dragging the non-line insurance sector lower on Wednesday, while life insurers were given a boost by Prudential. Admiral's shares were down 6% at 1,365p in afternoon trade after the car insurance group said that turnover in the first half was dow
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