BROKER SPOTLIGHT: Cairn drill plans excite Deutsche Bank


(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)From the paucity of research received this morning it seems most of the City's number crunchers are on vacation. There wasn't upgrade or downgrade worthy of mention in the first pass. One piece of research from the top-ranked oil team at Deutsche Bank did catch the eye. It was a preview of next Tuesday's interims from Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) – though the numbers are likely to play second-fiddle to an update on its exploration plans. For as Deutsche points out the second-half-weighted programme could be transformational. It said the timing and drilling locations for three wells in Senegal could be unveiled. While they are in deep waters off the coast of west Africa they aren't technically challenging the broker says. In fact each could be drilled in as little as 40 days. The work will help give a more accurate resource estimate. Currently experts say the discovery could contain anywhere from 155-670mln barrels of oil. Deutsche is also expecting a little more 'visibility' on the £1bn (US$1.6bn) tax dispute with Indian authorities that continues to rumble on in the background. Financially the bank's analysts reckons Cairn has been in cash preservation mode and estimates it has around £750mln on the balance sheet – the equivalent to half its current market capitalisation. 'This supports our view that the shares continue to misprice the substantial option value that Senegal and Cairn India offer which is fully funded from the strongest balance sheet in the sector' Deutsche said in a note to clients repeating its 'buy' advice and 225p a share price target. Currently the stock is changing hands for 153p. Elsewhere and as already mentioned it was thin pickings. There were target price increases for TUI (LON:TUI) from Morgan Stanley Cazenove (£12.85 from £12.75) and Jefferies (£11.60 from £11) after results. Their recommendations remain respectively 'overweight' and 'neutral'. Jefferies was a little more enthused about the potential of civil engineer Balfour Beatty (LON:BBY) as it raised its price target to £3 from £2.70 and repeated its 'buy' advice. You wonder what Tesco (LON:TSCO) has done to upset Goldman Sachs – other than the obvious – as the Wall Street bank restated its 'sell' this morning alongside its 190p a share price target. Elsewhere Allenby has backed marble quarry owner Fox Marble (LON:FOX) despite its recent warning on revenues for the rest of the year. The broker's fair value for the shares has been reduced to 31p from 49p but it is optimistic that management will shortly complete the integration of the final elements of the business model. SP Angel has also trimmed its price target for Russia-based gold miner Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) to 7.7p from 11p but still rates the shares as a buy as it is rated well below its London–listed peers. Cantor Fitzgerald has kept its buy stance on Indian renewables group Mytrah (LON:MYT) despite low winds affecting its first half. 'The key risk would be an early finish to the monsoon this year but so far there is no sign of this happening. Mytrah continues to represent a strong assets growth story and we retain our 'buy' recommendation and target price of 130p."


ProactiveInvestors - UK

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