LONDON (ShareCast) - Investors ordered a round of Mitchells & Butlers Friday after Swiss broker UBS lifted the pubs group to 'buy' from 'neutral' with 365p price target.
It expects better news when the UK mid-cap updates on recent trade at the end of this month following reports of progress from Whitbread, Punch Taverns and Greene King.
Morgan Stanley reckons household goods giant Unilever has been oversold in recent months, having fallen around 20% from May’s high.
Nevertheless, it still has the Anglo-Dutch group as 'underweight' with 1,600p price target.
AB Foods gets the nod over Tate & Lyle and Premier Foods, with an ‘overweight' rating and 960p target. Tate is kept as 'underweight' with 430p target, while Premier is 'equal-weight' with 120p target.
Cadbury, recently lowered to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ at Investec on valuation grounds, is 'overweight' with 750p target price.
News that the merger of Thomas Cook’s no-frills airline Condor and Air Berlin has been scrapped has failed to dent confidence in the UK travel firm at Investec Securities.
The broker, which maintained its ‘buy’ rating and 326p price target, said the news came as no surprise, while large industry capacity leave it upbeat on prospects for Cook in 2009.
Shares in the blue chip business reacted well to today’s decision, although they are still over 40% off February’s high and are unlikely to outperform near term says Investec.
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