Best of the Brokers for 19 October 2015
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The miner’s third quarter results were “modestly disappointing”, analysts at Canaccord Genuity said, with reduced full year production guidance in alumina, diamonds and titanium dioxide feedstock. Iron ore shipments, mined copper production and aluminium were all below Canaccord forecasts. The analysts held their “buy” rating and left their 3,130p target price unchanged.
Recent results confirmed the growth of Vanquis, a Provident Financial subsidiary bank. Its customer number grew 12 per cent and loan book expanded 21 per cent. Panmure Gordon maintained its “hold” rating and high target price of 3,000p as it believes there is a huge opportunity in the alternative lending that Provident Financial is ideally placed to capitalise on.
The bank’s third quarter update suggested some outperformance on credit card lending and some stabilisation in mortgage pricing which made Barclays’ analysts “more confident in the outlook”. They left their rating unchanged at “overweight” and kept their 450p target price. They said their positive outlook was supported by the firm’s ability to exploit competitive opportunities in the mortgage market.