Bryan, Garnier & Co reissued its “Buy” rating on ARM Holdings, up 2.7%, with a target price of 1310p. Liberum Capital reiterated its “Hold” rating on Johnson Matthey, up 2.3%, with a target price of 2940p.
Goodbody Stockbrokers upgraded its rating on DS Smith, up 2.4%, to “Hold” from “Sell” with a target price of 375p. Deutsche Bank reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Greene King, up 3%, with a target price of 1175p.
Kier Group, down 0.8%, announced that its annual revenues jumped to £2076.4m from £1571.8m in the last year; however, profit before tax narrowed to £18m from £27.8m reported prior year.
Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its “Buy” rating on Cyan Holdings, up 6.7%, with a target price of 1p. Peel Hunt reaffirmed its “Hold” rating on Dialight, up 5.9%, with a target price of 500p.
Xaar’s share price rose 4.5%, despite announcing that its full year revenues fell to £93.5m from £109.1m last year and profit before tax declined to £13.1m from £22.7m. Frontier Developments, up 1.3%, announced that its Elite Dangerous game will be available on Facebook's Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset from its consumer launch on 28 March.
Marshall Motor Holdings, up 0.9%, announced that its full year revenues jumped by 13.5% year-on-year to £1232.8m. Profit before tax rose to £15.4m from £12.9m. Investec reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 230p.
Ubisense Group’ share price remained unchanged at 40.5p. The company announced that it has won two new contracts with a combined value of $2.9m in North America for its Geospatial division.
JPMorgan Chase reduced its target price on Abcam, down 1.9%, to 581p from 608p and maintained its “Neutral” rating. Bango, down 2.3%, announced that its full year revenues fell to £3.2m from £5.1m posted last year. However losses before tax reduced to £5m from £5.4m. The company also announced that its CFO Gerry Tucker, has been appointed as the Strategic Partnerships Director and will be succeeded by Rachel Elias-Jones, Financial Controller, as the new CFO with immediate effect.
Vernalis, down 12.8%, announced that its half year revenues rose to £6.1m from £5.7m in the same period last year. However, it posted a loss before tax of £8.1m compared to a profit of £0.239m last year. Canaccord Genuity reduced its target price on the stock to 94p from 98p and maintained its “Buy” rating. Cambridge Cognition Holdings, down 32.4%, announced in its trading update that it is now expecting a net loss of £0.8m for 2015, due to a delay in one of the clinical trial contracts.
UK markets closed higher last week, mainly lifted by mining and homebuilding sector stocks. Meanwhile, the Bank of England policy makers left interest rates unchanged at 0.50%. The FTSE 100 index edged 0.8% higher to 6,189.6, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index rose 1% to finish at 3,309.7. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index gained 0.7% to 3,791.
US markets finished firmer in the previous week, led by advance in energy, raw material and industrial sector companies. Data showed that annual core inflation advanced more than expected in February. The DJIA index advanced 2.3% to 17,602.3, while the NASDAQ Index jumped 1% to 4,795.7.
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