(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Unsurprisingly Pearson (LON:PSON) and its sale of the FT to Japan's Nikkei received a fair bit of coverage with Deutsche repeating a 'sell' on the shares and suggesting that there may be more asset disposals to come. "We think the disposal is a sign of the structural pressure that the core business is under" says analyst Chris Collett. "As we have written about previously we think other assets will be disposed (PRH joint venture) but critically we think all proceeds will be reinvested in EM education and software not returned to shareholders." From November 2015 Pearson has the right to sell its 47% stake in PRH to Bertelsmann if the two parties can agree a transaction price. "The carrying value of PRH on Pearson's balance sheet is £1.1bn. In conjunction with the FT proceeds these deals would result in Pearson being entirely debt free" he notes. The target price from Deutsche is 1200p. The stock was top dog on FTSE100 today - at 1271p - up 3%. Meanwhile Citigroup bucked the gloom surrounding gold miners today by proclaiming that the price had now 'reached a more sustainable level.' After two-years without a 'Buy' rating on a gold or silver miner the broker has finally decided to give not just one the rating but three. Randgold (LON:RRS) Acacia (LON:ACA) and Fresnillo (LON:FRES) were the lucky recipients with silver miner Hochschild (LON:HOC) upgraded to 'Neutral'. The four shares had not been rated 'Buy' by Citi for the past three years. Elsewhere fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management's (LON:ADN) third quarter IMS (interim management statement) was far worse than expected says Liberum today. The broker has downgraded its EPS forecasts by 7% in full year 2015 14% in 2016 and 15% in 2017 and has lowered its price target to 437p from 493p. The shares were the biggest laggard on Footsie yesterday after the statement and today shares are down 0.19% to 368.4p. US heavyweight repeated a 'hold' on the shares and lowered the price target to 405p from 460p. Elsewhere broker VSA Capital reckons the near term outlook for mining major Anglo American (LON:AAL) is set to continue to be volatile. The group reported weak first half earnings on Thursday with revenues were down 17% year-on-year hit by weaker commodity prices and operational issues. However this was partly offset by a stronger product mix at De Beers which improved the price per carat received despite weaker market prices overall VSA noted. The mining giant saw underlying earnings slump by 36% in the half year to June US$1.88bn on revenues 13% lower at US$13.3bn. Barclays was more upbeat on budget airline carrier EasyJet (LON:EZJ) which it has repeated an 'overweight' rating on following the third quarter statement. It also raised the target price to 1950p from 1840p previously "We would not be surprised if capacity concerns weigh on the multiple into the winter but we think FY16 consensus looks very secure" said Barclays' analysts.
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