Tuesday broker round-up
14th Aug 2012 09:29
BTG: Jefferies cuts target from 410p to 360p, hold rating kept. Capital & Counties: Jefferies initiates coverage with buy rating and 249p target. Centamin: Investec maintains buy rating and 95p target. Daily Mail & General Trust: UBS raises target from 380p to 465p, neutral rating kept. Dragon O
Read moreMonday broker round-up - UPDATE
14th May 2012 07:48
Antofagasta: AlphaValue downgrades from add to sell, target cut from 1,201.3p to 915p. Avanti Communications: Jefferies reiterates buy rating and 600p target. Chariot Oil & Gas: Jefferies keeps buy rating and 355p target; Merchant Securities keeps buy recommendation and 232.1p target. Dignity: In
Read moreMears Chairman sells all of his ordinary shares
23rd Mar 2012 15:39
Bob Holt, Chairman of Mears, a social housing maintenance firm, has exercised share options for over 1,500,000 ordinary shares and subsequently sold two million shares - his entire holding of ordinary shares in the firm. He sold the shares for 250p each for a total of £0.5m. 56-year-old Holt has
Read moreMears up on forecast beating profits
20th Mar 2012 10:38
Social housing maintenance firm Mears beat profit forecasts for 2011 as it sought to grow its care homes business. Turnover came in at £589m slightly below the consensus forecast of £598m but still 12% ahead of 2010. Profits before tax beat expectations, totalling £31.5m versus a forecast of £31.2
Read moreTuesday preview: Cairn Energy, Mears, inflation
19th Mar 2012 15:09
Oil firm Cairn Energy, which appears to have blown hundreds of millions of pounds in a fruitless search for oil and gas off the coast of Greenland, will release its full year results on Tuesday. The Scottish oil company, already regarded as a villain by many environmentalists because of its drilli
Read moreMears boasts of robust order book
10th Jan 2012 13:30
Shares in social housing and care provider Mears were up on news that contract successes have pushed it almost all the way to meeting the market's revenue expectations for 2012. The company said its order book has risen to £2.8bn. The strong order book means that the company has booked 93% of 2012'
Read moreThursday broker round-up - UPDATE
1st Dec 2011 09:56
Royal Bank of Scotland: Evolution Securities cuts target from 40p to 35p, buy rating unchanged. Marks & Spencer: Investec downgrades from buy to hold. Next: Investec upgrades from hold to buy. Kingfisher: Investec reiterates hold, target cut from 245p to 235p. Cairn Energy: UBS cuts target from
Read morePremier Foods director bites again
18th Nov 2011 16:02
Ian Deste, group sales director at struggling firm Premier Foods, has served himself up a helping of shares. The director purchased 186,746 shares 5.20p just a few weeks after the firm's bankers agreed to defer the company's end-of-year loan covenant tests by three months, in a move which forms pa
Read moreLondon close: FTSE 100 rallies to close with gains
16th Aug 2011 16:50
The FTSE 100 found strength as the day progressed, helped by some economic data from the US, and managed to finish with gains. Sentiment had been depressed earlier on by figures on this side of the pond. The Eurozone economy grew by a paltry 0.2% in the second quarter compared with the previous thr
Read moreLondon midday: Stocks fall back amid economic worries
16th Aug 2011 12:08
Stocks are firmly in the red as investors digest some sobering economic data both at home and abroad. The Eurozone economy grew by a paltry 0.2% in the second quarter compared with the previous three month period amid a sharp slowdown in growth in the trading bloc's economic powerhouse Germany. He
Read moreMears wins big after rivals' collapse
16th Aug 2011 08:57
Social housing and care provider, Mears Group, has announced record interim results, hailing "unprecedented levels of opportunity in the public sector". The firm said profits before tax came in at £14.1m for the six months to the end of June, a 7% increase on the year before. Revenues were up 16
Read moreTuesday preview: Mears, inflation
15th Aug 2011 17:36
The last year has been the proverbial roller-coaster ride for shareholders in social housing provider Mears, but that has been more due to things like the fall-out from the government's comprehensive spending review and the rapid demise of sector peers such as Connaught and Rok, rather than the comp
Read moreTuesday tips round-up: Autonomy, Mears, RPC
17th May 2011 00:01
Autonomy is buying the digital storage assets of Iron Mountain, a quoted American company, for $380m (£234m). The City, which has an unsteady relationship with Autonomy, was generally in favour of the deal, not least because it clearly is an area the company knows well, which should mitigate risk. T
Read moreLondon close: Heavy losses despite recovery
15th Mar 2011 16:42
The FTSE 100 closed deep in the red Tuesday amid continuing worries over the situation in Japan, though losses were more than halved following a slide in the morning as nerves calmed. A third explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan has raised concerns of a major radiation le
Read moreLondon afternoon: Stocks stabilise
15th Mar 2011 14:27
Leading shares remain deep in the red and the best that can be said is that the situation did not get materially worse over the lunch time session. A third explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan has raised concerns of a major radiation leak and sparked panic selling on the
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