2899 days ago
Those dreaded phrases "strategic review" and "breach of banking covenant" should have warned you that Circle Oil (COP) was toast and I warned you often enough in bearcasts. But it today Circle has admitted that the game is up yet one broker does not get it and has published the worst note in history or at least since Cenkos & SP Angel told folks to reject the 3p bid for Petroceltic (PCI)
2925 days ago
I really am not sure that I believe a word of it or even understand half of it but in the interests of balance here is a note out today from the house broker to Tern (TERN), Peterhouse. The house broker is, shall we say, not always regarded as impartial. But at least its enthusiasm will annoy Nigel Somerville.
2975 days ago
After yesterday's dire news from LGO Energy (LGO) which saw its shares slump to 0.31p the case of Tom Winnifrith vs David Leni-Maths continues and I now bring you another piece of evidence, possibly the worst broker note in history. Analyst Barney Gray at Old Park Lane was either on crack cocaine when he penned this classic back on 21 February 2012 or he was simply writing exactly what the share ramper David Lenigas told him to write. My guess is that it was the latter as Old Park was joint corporate broker at the time. Anyhow, Barney told us that the shares were a buy at 1.2p with a 5p target. But it is what he says in this nonsense that is of real import.
2998 days ago
Some misguided folks think that a broker buy note is worth following. Au contraire. And here is a bit of data gleaned from one Broker's daily note today which shows you why. Prepare to have a bubble with some shocking hard data.
3631 days ago
Some folks get terribly excited about broker research reports. Henry at JP Morgan upgrades his stance from overweight to buy, Goldman’s removes a stock from its Conviction List but still rates it as buy. You know it all means sweet FA. Sorry to market reporters who fill column inches with this stuff but it is meaningless.
Brokers earn sod all from secondary trades that is to say from funds buying or selling shares on the back of research. Hence the real purpose of paying vast sums to analysts is to churn out documents to keep corporate clients (PLCs) happy and to lure in others. As such you rarely get sell notes.
Consider this: global stockmarkets are at near record highs. Does that, on balance, make you think that the vast majority of stocks are buys with only a few sells or perhaps it is the other way round? I would suggest that with markets at record highs this is not a “fill yer boots” moment.
And so
3644 days ago
In the interests of balance I bring you the pre-results “buy” note on blinkx (BLNX) from its house broker Citi. You will see that it has a target price of 175p. The shares are now 86p. In invite you to read the note in full here.. However….
I make a couple of observations.
4076 days ago
Broker First Columbus has today initiated its coverage of theatre group Reach4Entertainment (LSE:R4E) with a buy stance at 4.9p and a target price of 10p. That may be on the cautious side. It is clear that Reach has stabilised and is out of the critical ward and on the recovery path something the broker note on this AIM listed company makes clear.
