Deutsche Bank increased its target price on ARM Holdings, up 1.9%, to 1150p from 1050p and maintained its “Hold” rating. Peel Hunt reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 1200p. On 18 July, shares of the company soared as much as 43%, after SoftBank Group agreed to acquire the company for around £24bn. To ease concerns regarding the takeover, Softbank have said they will double the size of ARM’s UK-based workforce over the next five years.
Johnson Matthey, up 5.7%, announced that Anna Manz has been appointed as Group Finance Director to succeed Den Jones. Abcam, down 1.7%, was set a target price of 581p by JP Morgan Cazenove .
Sepura surged 44.8%, after it obtained a formal contract worth about $34m to supply TETRA network for New York City Transit. Bango, up 37.6%, announced its first half margins remained in-line with expectations while the annualised End User Spend (EUS) increased significantly on an annual basis to £159m. Peel Hunt reconfirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 100p.
Vernalis, up 16.3%, announced that Juno Therapeutics has agreed to acquire the outstanding shares of RedoxTherapies.
Amino Technologies, up 10.8%, announced that its half year revenues climbed to £33m; however, it suffered a loss before tax of £0.549, compared to a profit of £3.6m reported in the same period last year.
Brady, up 9.1%, announced that its trading & risk solution has been selected by Metallica Commodities. Numis Securities reissued its “Buy” rating on Kier Group, up 7.3%, with a target price of 1407p.
Xaar, up 6.2%, announced that its first half trading was in line with the Board's expectations, with total revenue expected at £44m, against £47.8m in the same period last year.
1Spatial, up 5.9%, announced that its US subsidiary has won a contract worth $1.7m from a US Federal Government Agency. Beaufort Securities reissued its “Buy” rating on AVEVA Group, up 3% and JP Morgan Cazenove reiterated its target price of 1750p.
Marshall Motor Holdings, down 0.6%, stated that the Group performance in the first half of the year was strong and in line with the Board's expectations.
RhythmOne Plc (former Blinkx PLC), down 4.2%, announced that it expects the Q1 performance to be ahead of management’s expectations. Sagentia Group, down 4.9%, announced that its half year revenues advanced to £17.7m from £14.1m posted in the same period preceding year. However, profit before tax fell to £1.1m from £1.9m. Numis Securities reiterated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 180p.
Cyan Holdings, down 5.6%, announced that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Enzen Global Ltd to deliver expertise in narrowband mesh technology to the Internet of Things market in Ireland.
UK markets ended positively in the earlier week, as Theresa May’s appointment as nation’s new Prime Minister ended the prolonged political uncertainty in the UK. Meanwhile, the Bank of England maintained its key interest rate at 0.50%. The FTSE 100 index advanced 1.2% to 6,669.2, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 2.6% to 3,453.3. The FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 1.7% to 4,058.8.
US markets rose in the previous week, followed by robust corporate earnings. Retail sales in the US climbed for the third consecutive month in June. The DJIA index advanced 2% to 18,516.6, while the NASDAQ index rose 1.5% to 5,029.6.
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