BNP Paribas maintained its “Outperform” rating on ARM Holdings, up 2.8%. Barclays reiterated its “Overweight” recommendation on the stock with a target price of 1250.0p, while Liberum Capital maintained its “Sell” rating on the stock with a target price of 700.0p.
Johnson Matthey, down 0.6%, announced that it has completed the acquisition of the battery materials business of Clariant AG for $75m. Separately, the company announced the completion of the sale of its Gold and Silver Refining business to Asahi Holdings, Inc.
In its results for the fourth quarter ended 26 December 2014, CSR, down 0.2%, announced that its underlying revenue declined 10% YoY to $188.1m while its profit after tax stood at $21.6m, compared to a loss of $76.1m in the prior year.
In its results for the full year ended 31 December 2014, Dialight, up 10.8%, announced that its revenue climbed to £159.8m from £131.2m reported last year. Meanwhile, its operating profit rose to £15.8m from £11.6m posted in 2013. The company’s profit after tax increased to £9.5m from £7.7m.
Sagentia Group, up 2.6%, announced that its full year revenue declined to £28.3m from £30.6m reported in 2013, while its operating profit dropped to £4.7m from £5.4m. The company’s profit eased to £3.4m from £4.6m reported previous year. The company proposed a significant rise in its full year dividend to 4.0p. Westhouse Securities reissued its “Add” rating on the stock with a target price of 175.0p.
Vernalis, up 2.4%, announced the achievement of the second milestone in its drug discovery collaboration with Asahi Kasei Pharma. It will receive a payment of £0.5 million in appreciation of this achievement. Frontier Developments, up 1.5%, announced that it will launch its Elite: Dangerous game to Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, in late 2015.
Kier Group, up 0.1%, stated that it has promoted three Executive Directors to its board, following the departure of its Chief Operating Officer.
1Spatial which ended flat last week announced that it has issued 37.0m options to both its executive team and other members of staff. N+1 Singer downgraded its recommendation on Abcam, down 0.1%, to “Sell”.
N+1 Singer reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Amino Technologies, down 0.4%, with a target price of 148.0p. N+1 Singer reissued its “Buy” rating on Horizon Discovery Group, down 2.3%. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated its “Underweight” rating on Aveva Group, down 6.5%, with a target price of 1220.0p. Also, Numis Securities cut its rating on the stock to “Add” with a target price of 1770.0p, while Barclays Capital lowered its target price on the company’s shares to 1690.0p from 1900.0p and maintained its “Equal weight” rating.
UK markets ended mostly higher in the earlier week, after the ECB unveiled details of its QE programme, stating that it would begin asset purchases this week. The FTSE 100 index slipped 0.5% to 6,911.8, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index gained 0.5% to finish at 3,181.1. Also, the FTSE techMARK 100 Index edged 0.5% higher to 3,817.6.
US markets closed lower in the previous week, amid growing fears that the US Fed might hike interest rates by the middle of this year following robust US jobs data. The DJIA index fell 1.5% to 17,856.8, while the NASDAQ Index dropped 0.7% to 4,927.4.
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