Tuesday tips round-up: Centamin, Halfords

LONDON (ShareCast) - Egypt-focused gold miner Centamin (Toronto: CEE.TO - news) offers investors a rather unique selling point, a dividend yield of about 3%. That comes despite the poor performance by the price of gold over the past year, which fell to below $1,200 an ounce. However, the risk of further drops in the price of gold cannot be ignored, which could put the company´s free cash flow at risk.

Making things worse, the company is still mired in a long-running legal dispute over the ownership of its sole producing asset, in Egypt. Centamin has been looking to diversify into other African countries, but there can be no guarantees.

"Too many uncertainties over future prospects," writes The Times´s Tempus. "Avoid for now," Tempus adds.

The signs point to a successful transition at the helm of bike parts retailer Halfords . The previous company chief Matt Davies came in from Pets at Home (LSE: PETS.L - news) and bet big on store revamps and launching the getting Into Gear programme, which promptly boosted sales. In fact, he did so well that he was soon poached by rival Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) .

Incoming replacement Jill McDonald, who hails from McDonalds, looks pretty smart. Halford´s fitting car parts while customers wait is just the kind of service at which McDonald may excel. Broker Investec agrees. It recently told clients that the new boss´s "strong brand marketing and customer service background [which] looks a good match for Halfords." Changing hands at a 2016 price-to-earnings multiple of 13.3, and sporting a dividend yield of 3.8%, the shares are a buy, writes The Daily Telegraph´s Questor team.