Deutsche Bank reiterated its “Hold” rating on ARM Holdings, up 6.5%, with a price target of 900p. Citigroup upgraded the stock to “Buy” from “Neutral”.
BNP Paribas maintained its “Outperform” rating on Johnson Matthey, up 2.3%, with a price target of 3600p. Credit Suisse increased its price target on the stock to 3000p from 2900p and maintained its “Neutral” rating. Liberum Capital maintained its “Hold” recommendation on the stock.
Jefferies Group increased its price target on DS Smith, up 2.5%, to 330p from 300p and maintained its “Hold” rating on the stock. Greene King, up 4.4%, announced that retail like-for-like sales advanced 2% over Christmas & the New Year and 0.6% on a year-to-date basis.
Kier Group, up 3.8%, announced it has secured new construction contracts worth £145m in the Middle East since the start of 2014.
Cyan Holdings, up 25.9%, announced the receipt of a purchase order worth approximately £1m from Enzen Global Solutions Pvt Ltd for a large pilot project. Sareum Holdings, up 14.3%, announced that a further US patent has been granted for one of Sareum’s key drug discovery inventions.
Sagentia Group, up 3.6%, stated that trading in the latter half of 2014 was more robust than the first half and despite a negative foreign exchange impact, the core consultancy fees rose during the period. Brady, up 1.9%, stated that its performance for the second half of the year has continued to be on par with expectations and thus full year performance is likely to be in line with market expectations. In its trading update,
Quixant, up 1.7%, indicated that performance for the full year was in line with market expectations. Cambridge Cognition Holdings, up 1.3%, announced that it launched a new iPad-based research product in its Cantab Connect range which is aimed at academic researchers seeking clinical measures of cognitive function in universities and research institutes.
In its trading update, Horizon Discovery Group, up 0.4%, announced that the group reported a positive year and projected full year revenues to surpass expectations of £11m by around 7%.
Abcam, down 4.8%, announced the acquisition of Firefly BioWorks Inc. for a cash consideration of around £18.5m. The company expressed confidence of fulfilling the Board’s full year revenue guidance, however also highlighted that its revenue growth during the period was capped by adverse exchange rates, and on a constant currency basis revenue growth was 13.8%.
Ubisense Group, down 6.1%, expects its adjusted 2014 EBITDA to be in line with its projections, even after revenues in its second half missed market expectations. Oriel Securities Ltd downgraded its rating on Dialight, down 8.6%, to “Sell” with a target price of 635p. LPA Group fell 18.8% after warning that its current financial year had got off to “an extremely slow start”. Its full year revenues stood at £16.8m, compared to £17.6m recorded last year while its profit after tax was £0.3m, from £1.8m for the previous year.
UK markets generally ended higher over the week, following the announcement from the ECB that it will begin a programme of quantative easing. The FTSE 100 index rose 4.3% to 6,832.8, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index slid 0.3% to 3,033.7. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index edged 2.8% higher to 3,631.8.
US markets closed firmer in the previous week, amid improved risk appetite amongst investors. The DJIA index gained 0.9% to 17,672.6, while the NASDAQ Index jumped 2.7% to 4,757.9.
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