Broker tips: Barclays, Travis Perkins, Intertek, Kingfisher, Consumer staples

A handful of brokerages continue to rate Barclays stock as ‘buy’ despite Tuesday’s results from the bank that contain a huge increase in provisions to cover the costs of legal fees relating to scandals.

Despite concerns in the market that rising litigation costs could dent the group’s profitability further, brokerages covering the bank were overwhelmingly positive with Jefferies, Numis Securities, Investec Securities and Shore Capital all maintaining a positive rating on Barclays stock.

Travis Perkins delivered a “typically conservative statement” on Tuesday as it warned about a moderation of growth in the UK housing market, according to Westhouse Securities which kept a ‘neutral’ rating on the stock.

“The focus will remain on self-help and out-performing its markets rather than growth in the market itself, which is largely dependent on transactions in the second-hand market,” the broker said.

Testing services firm Intertek, had its rating cut to ‘neutral’ by HSBC on Tuesday, a day after the company released full-year 2014 earnings. HSBC downgraded its rating on the stock from ‘overweight’ on valuation grounds, saying the stock is “up with events”.

A potential restructuring of B&Q’s property could “surprise on the upside” for owner Kingfisher, according to Credit Suisse which lifted its target price for the DIY group from 360p to 400p.

A possible restructuring could include 30 store closures over the next five years; this will give up 5.4% of sales but margins will improve and cash profit should increase 42%, the bank estimated.

Shares in Associated British Foods (ABF) and Unilever were making decent gains on Tuesday after broker Investec named the two stocks as its top ‘buys’ in the European consumer staples sector.

“We see the risk reward on Primark’s US entry to the upside for ABF. Meanwhile at Unilever, we expect raw material tailwinds to provide the flexibility to deliver better than expected margin progression and/or a stronger reinvestment led volume growth recovery.”