Broker tips: British American Tobacco, Greene King, Mitchells & Butlers, Glencore

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - The medium-term outlook for British American Tobacco is "strong" but the firm is facing earnings downgrades from analysts related to movements in foreign exchange markets and price roll-backs in Australia, one large broker said to clients after the company's Investor Day. Nonetheless, innovation is allowing the company to grow market share.

At its investor day the firm presented two new-to-world innovations, a hybrid device combining actual tobacco and e-cigarettes to improve taste and a new heat-not-burn product. Both were expected to launch in 2016.

Those product innovations were also getting to market at an accelerated pace, as shown by the introduction of its "Tubes" across 27bn sticks, representing approximately 4% of global volumes in 2014.

The firm was also beginning to mix its innovations.

Citi kept its recommendation on the shares unchanged at 'buy' with a target price of 4000p.

HSBC cut its stance on Greene King (Other OTC: GKNGY - news) and Mitchells & Butlers (LSE: MAB.L - news) as it took a look at the UK pubs sector.

The bank downgraded Greene King to 'reduce' from 'hold' and cut its price target to 780p from 830p saying it was concerned about like-for-like sales growth.

"We assume 2%, which is already high versus the peer group - and are concerned that minimum wage pressures could emerge," it said.

The bank said it doesn't see huge downside, but noted that the price-to-earnings multiple is high compared with history, even once synergies from the acquisition of Spirit are factored in.

HSBC cut Mitchells & Butlers to 'hold' from 'buy' and slashed the price target to 385p from 495p.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) said that while the shares may look inexpensive on headline multiples, it is hard for the bank to see what the potential catalysts for a re-rating will be.

"The payment of a dividend - the most likely catalyst in our view - remains distant." Tuesday's sell-off in Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) shares left substantial implied upside in their price but recent elevated levels of volatility means investors should be wary.

For those reasons, on Wednesday broker Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) upgraded its recommendation on the shares to 'hold' from 'sell', but no more.

If commodity prices do not recover rapidly from their levels at present then the commodity trader's recent equity placing and cuts to dividends - which yielded $4.9bn - may be insufficient for "for the benefits of recovery to feed through to equity holders," analyst Marc Elliot said in a research note sent to clients.

What's more, should current commodity prices stay at current levels then the company may need to adopt further measures to strengthen its balance sheet. Those would include asset sales ($2bn), working capital reductions (US$1.5bn) and other adjustments (US$1.8bn) just to keep its debt rating intact.