- Peel Hunt upgrades Whitbread to ‘Buy’
- Liberum upgrades THG to ‘Buy’
- Barclays adds target price for Aston Martin Lagonda
- Berenberg adds target price for Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Peel Hunt upgrades Whitbread to ‘buy’
Peel Hunt has upgraded Whitbread LON:WTB to ‘Buy’ (Add) and raised its target price to 4,000p (2,850p). The broker suggests the FTSE 100 hotel and restaurant business is in a strong position with demand for UK budget hotels remaining “very strong with leisure and ‘blue collar’ demand particularly robust and ‘white collar’ demand still recovering”. Peel Hunt also note it is “past the worst in terms of labour cost inflation”. Upside from lower energy costs in the medium term and growth of the business in Germany makes for a positive outlook. Preliminary results are due out next week.
At the time of writing, shares were trading at 3,118.56p, up 16% this year and +7% over the last 12 months.
Liberum upgrades THG to ‘Buy’
Liberum has upgraded THG LON:THG to ‘Buy’ (Hold) and raising the target price to 220p (55p). We reported last month that the Manchester-based, e-commerce business was well placed and it has confirmed a takeover proposal from private equity firm Apollo Global Management this week. Liberum has suggested that while there is no certainty a deal will transpire, “we highlight in this note just how cheap the shares are,”
With results due out next week, this is certainly one to watch. Shares were trading at 77.06p, up 64% for the year to date and -17% over the last 12 months.
Barclays adds target price for Aston Martin Lagonda
Barclays has added a target price of 250p for Aston Martin Lagonda LON:AML this week, reiterating its ‘Overweight’ rating. The FTSE 250 luxury car maker published preliminary results last month seeing revenue grow 26% on the previous year and a strong order book heading in to the new year. The update noted the difficult operating environment but Chairman Lawrence Stroll struck an optimistic tone noting “we ended the year with significantly improved growth, margin enhancement and positive free cash flow in Q4, exiting 2022 with the strongest order book in many years.”
Shares were trading at 225.80p, up 45% for the year to date and -27% over the last 12 months.
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Berenberg adds target price for Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Berenberg has added a target price of 529p for Oxford Nanopore Technologies LON:ONT and reiterated its ‘Buy’ rating. The Biotech stock has arrested its share price slump with final results last month highlighting revenues for the last year up almost 50%. A softening of orders in March 2023, much of which resulted from a drop in COVID-19 sequencing following a change in China’s zero-COVID policy struck a note of caution but as we mention in a recent article, the company’s gene-sequencing technology could be a real game changer. A lot boils down to how long you are prepared to hold onto this one, but be braced for possible short term disappointment in 2024.
Shares were trading at 214.95p at the time of writing, down 16% for the year to date and -37% over the last 12 mths.
