Nomura has retained its neutral stance and 268p target price for UK lender Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) ahead of its first-quarter statement due on Thursday April 26th. Despite its cautious view, Nomura does say that it prefers Barclays to its Eurozone peers, "given the headwinds faced by continental European economies from austerity in a low growth and deleveraging environment." "We retain our neutral rating on the name as we think additional upside will require a rerating of BarCap ROEs [return on equity targets], which we see as difficult to achieve in an environment of low interest rate and sluggish growth."
UBS (NYSEArca: DJCI - news) has upgraded its rating for oil and gas group Heritage Oil (Frankfurt: A0NG6K - news) from neutral to buy following the recent weakness in the shares. The Swiss broker notes that since February, the stock has de-rated and the shares are now down 22% year-to-date in US$ terms, having underperformed other exploration and production companies (E&Ps) by 45%. "We see this as unjustified and given unchanged underlying fundamentals we upgrade to buy," UBS said.
Investec (Frankfurt: A0J32R - news) has raised its target price for Iraq-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone (LSE: GKP.L - news) from 191p to 232p after positive results from its Shaikan-4 deep appraisal well testing programme. "The company is set to move forward with a full development programme and this announcement will provide the government with an assurance that Gulf Keystone is proving up the resource base to achieve this objective," said Investec. The broker has maintained its buy recommendation for the stock. BC
