Broker tips: BT Group, Rotork, Wolseley

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Nomura downgraded BT Group to 'neutral' from 'buy' and cut its price target to 490p from 560p. The Japanese bank said it senses a negative shift in regulatory risk, which along with renewed public sector headwinds dents its confidence in BT achieving its target of profitable top-line growth for the medium term.

"Without top-line growth, we think further rating expansion relative to telecom peers will be difficult and we downgrade to neutral," it said.

In addition, the bank said it anticipates renewed pressure on BT's public sector revenue streams.

"We expect renewed pressure on public sector budgets with the new government's Autumn Spending Review, and, in particular, we are concerned about the impact of a new government framework designed to secure efficiencies from centralised procurement and to allocate more business to small and medium-sized suppliers." Pricing pressure and market share loss also seem likely for BT, the broker told clients.

Shares in industrial components manufacturer Rotork were under the cosh again as JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'overweight' and slashed its price target to 180p from 245p following the company's profit warning last week.

The analysts said that for now, the key word is uncertainty; uncertainty on the timing of current orders and deliveries, uncertainty on project cancellations and uncertainty on the outlook.

"We have previously been positive on the stock and our view on the quality of the business is unchanged but against this backdrop and with sentiment on the stock taking a significant hit following the profit warning (the rarest of events for Rotork) we see the near-term upside for the shares as limited." Wolseley got a boost on Monday as Credit Suisse added the stock to its European and Global Focus Lists and raised its price target to 4,900p from 4,400p.

The Swiss broker said Wolseley has delivered a very impressive operational performance in its US division in recent years in terms of margin expansion and market share growth, and as a result the stock price performance has been noteworthy, with consistent outperformance versus sector and index over the last three years. The US division accounts for around 75% of group profit.

"We believe such outperformance can be maintained, and see a multi-year growth opportunity in the US," said the bank, which rates the stock at 'outperform'.