Liberum Capital reconfirmed its “Sell” rating on ARM Holdings, up 5.8%, with a target price of 650.0p. The stock was subject to mixed reviews from many other brokers.
AlphaValue downgraded its rating on Johnson Matthey, up 10.1%, to “Add” from “Buy” with a target price of 2,695.0p. Liberum Capital reiterated its “Hold” rating on the stock.
Jefferies Group lowered its target price on DS Smith, up 5.8%, to 360.0p from 430.0p and maintained its “Hold” rating. Stifel Nicolaus restated its “Buy” rating on Greene King, up 2.8%, with a target price of 1020.0p. Barclays reaffirmed its “Overweight” rating on the stock.
Panmure Gordon reiterated its “Buy” rating on Horizon Discovery Group, up 13.1%, with a target price of 270.0p. Peel Hunt initiated its “Buy” rating on Sepura, up 9.6%, with a target price of 210.0p. Berenberg Bank restated its “Buy” rating on AVEVA Group, up 8.6%, with a target price of 1800.0p.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings, up 8.0%, announced that it has appointed Steven Powell as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. Meanwhile, Nick Kerton, the former CEO, will remain as a Non-Executive Director of the company.
Frontier Developments, up 3.4%, announced that it has launched its new Elite Dangerous: Arena video game for Windows PC. FinnCap reissued its “Corporate” rating on the stock.
Amino Technologies, up 2.6%, in its results for the year ended 30 November 2015, announced that its revenues climbed by 15% to £41.6m. Profit before tax stood at £0.322m compared to a profit of £4.0m in the last year. Basic earnings per share after exceptional items came in at 0.61p compared to earnings of 7.68p in the prior year. The company’s board has recommended a full year dividend of 5.5p per share, subject to shareholder’s approval. The company separately announced that Julia Hubbard resigned as Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect. The stock received mixed ratings from various brokers. Liberum Capital retained its “Buy” rating on Kier Group, up 2.1%, with a target price of 1400.0p.
Gaming Realms (former PDX PLC), down 17.0%, announced that it has sold its third party platform driven website properties to Silverspin Media Ltd and Blackspark Limited for a total consideration of £2.9m on a conditional basis. The company will be paid by Black Spark, upon completion, an up-front cash payment of £1.2m and an additional £0.5m payable under a transitional services agreement over the next 5 months. The remaining £1.2m of the total consideration, payable by Silverspin, will be netted off against the final earn out payments to the selling shareholders of Blueburra Holdings Limited.
UK markets ended in the green last week, amid gains in the mining and crude oil stocks. On the macro front, UK’s monthly consumer prices dropped more than expected in January. The FTSE 100 index rose 4.3% to 5,950.2, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index climbed 3.7% to finish at 3,199.6. Also, the FTSE techMARK 100 Index gained 7.4% to 3,783.4.
US markets closed higher in the previous week, led by financial and technology sector stocks. Meanwhile, the annual consumer price inflation in the US in January rose to the most in nearly 4-1/2 years driven by rising rents and medical costs. The DJIA index edged 2.6% higher to 16,392.0, while the NASDAQ Index advanced 3.8% to 4,504.4.
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