Broker Upgrades and Downgrades & Key UK Corporate Snapshots 26 November 2015

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4d Pharma Plc (DDDD.L) Announced, in its research update on MicroRx, its proprietary platform for the discovery of novel live biotherapeutics that in the last 18 months the MicroRx platform has delivered a proprietary pipeline of 12 programmes and continues to be targeted at delivering more candidates across multiple disease areas. Over the last six months, the Company has focused part of this work in oncology and is pleased to report that it has identified an orally administered live biotherapeutic candidate that has shown efficacy in pre-clinical models of breast and lung cancers. As with its other development programmes, 4D will accelerate the cancer programme further towards the clinic, aiming to have it ready for testing in patients in 12 months. We will also be targeting the MicroRx platform towards other cancers.

Ebiquity Plc (EBQ.L) Announced, in its trading update for the half year ended 31 October 2015, that it performed in line with market expectations for the period while it showed a better trading compared to the same period last year. On the similar grounds, it expects to meet market expectations for the 12 months to 31 December 2015. After the company announced that it has changed its financial year end to 31 December, the current results will represent the last time the company will report on the half year period 1 May to 31 October. It will report its performance for the full eight months period from 1 May to 31 December 2015 in March 2016. The results will also include the company’s performance for the 12 months ending 31 December 2015 against the equivalent period in 2014, both presented on a pro forma basis.

EKF Diagnostics Holdings Plc (EKF.L) Announced, in its trading update for the 12 months to 31 December 2015, that it expects to achieve full year revenues of approximately £32 million. It identified a number of areas which might significantly be affected by the company’s profit before tax for the year including the partial or complete impairment of the Molecular division for which discussions are ongoing for its divestment. Also, a provision against, or write off of, specific debtors and the closure costs of the STI site in Sanford, which the company announced on 12 November 2015, are the other two areas which are likely to be affected during the period. It also said that the management team has been making progress to realign its cost base with the goal of achieving positive cash generation in the early part of next year.

First Property Group Plc (FPO.L) Announced, in its half year results for six months ended 30 September 2015, that revenues rose to £10.9 million from £7.8 million posted in the same period preceding year. The company’s profit before tax stood at £5.3 million, compared to a profit of £4.9 million reported in the previous year. The basic earnings per share stood at 4.28p compared to earnings of 4.24p reported in the previous year. The company further stated that the board has declared an interim dividend of 0.385p per share, payable on 31 December 2015 to shareholders on the register at 4 December 2015.

hVIVO Plc (HVO.L) Announced that it has raised £20.5 million (before expenses) by way of a placing of 9,111,111 new ordinary shares with existing institutional shareholders at a price of 225p per ordinary share. The net proceeds of the placing are expected to be approximately £20.0 million and would be principally used to progress PrEP-001 to Phase IIb, commence the stratification of asthma and advance the flu pathomics outputs into product candidates.

James Latham Plc (LTHM.L) Announced, in its half year results for six months ended 30 September 2015, that revenues rose to £96.2 million from £89.1 million posted in the same period preceding year. The company’s profit before tax stood at £6.3 million, compared to a profit of £5.2 million reported in the previous year. The basic earnings per share stood at 25.8p compared to earnings of 20.5p reported in the previous year. The company further stated that the board has declared an interim dividend of 4.0p per share, payable on 29 January 2016 to ordinary shareholders on the company’s register at close of business on 8 January 2016.

LondonMetric Property Plc (LMP.L) Announced, in its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2015, that its gross rental income stood at £31.73 million, compared to £28.94 million in the preceding period. Profit after tax was £64.34 million compared to £69.69 million. The company’s basic and diluted earnings per share was 10.3p, compared to 11.2p. Moreover, the company announced that it has agreed to purchase a new 356,000 sq ft distribution warehouse development at Omega South, Warrington.

Marston’s Plc (MARS.L) Announced, in its preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 3 October 2015, that its reported revenue stood at £878.6 million, compared to £815.3 million in the preceding period. Profit after tax was £23.3 million compared to loss net of tax £50.7 million. The company’s diluted earnings per share was 4.0p, compared to loss per share 8.9p.

Netcall Plc (NET.L) Announced that it has secured a five-year SaaS contract worth £0.4 million to provide its Liberty Customer Experience Manager solution to a Local Authority. This contract is the first with a Local Authority for the Customer Experience Manager (CXM) modules within Liberty. The customer will use the CXM module to provide a single view of all data relevant to their customers, enable efficient case management and facilitate multichannel interaction with their customers. Netcall’s ability to deliver the solution via a SaaS model was key to winning the contract. As the Local Authority is already a Netcall customer they will also benefit from the integration between the CXM module and their current Netcall Contact Handling solution to streamline interactions and enable web self-service.

Nighthawk Energy Plc (HAWK.L) Announced, in its operational update of Northstar 1-14 well, that the well spudded on 12 November 2015 and was drilled to a total depth of 8,900 feet. The well was drilled on an independent structure within the Monarch Joint Development Area. The Spergen formation was present in the Mississippian section of the well and had no oil shows. Open hole logs were run to evaluate the potential of the shows in uphole zones and it was determined that there were no zones in the well that would warrant the running of production casing and initiating a completion. Hence, the well has been plugged and abandoned.

Paypoint Plc (PAY.L) Announced, in its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2015, that its reported revenue stood at £102.82 million, compared to £104.27 million in the preceding period. Loss net of tax was £1.29 million compared to profit after tax £17.75 million. The company’s diluted loss per share was 1.90p, compared to earnings per share of 26.0p.

Severn Trent Plc (SVT.L) Announced, in its half year results for six months ended 30 September 2015, that revenues eased to £896.1 million from £898.3 million posted in the same period preceding year. The company’s profit before tax stood at £186.2 million, compared to a profit of £137.1 million reported in the previous year. The basic earnings per share stood at 60.5p compared to earnings of 44.8p reported in the previous year. The company further stated that the board has approved an interim dividend of 32.26p per share and has not been included as a liability as at 30 September 2015.

SSP Group Plc (SSPG.L) Announced, in its final results for the year ended 30 September 2015, that its revenue stood at £1832.9 million, compared to £1827.1 million in the preceding year. Profit after tax was £60.3 million compared to loss net of tax £27.8 million. The company’s diluted earnings per share was 11.2p, compared to loss per share of 10.7p.

Strat Aero Plc (AERO.L) Announced, in its update on Geocurve Holdings Limited, its 100% owned subsidiary, that it has increased its sales pipeline and now possesses a potential business worth up to £10.0 million. It includes £7.0 million flood defence and related surveying work, similar to its mapping of the Norfolk Broads National Park, combining UAV aerial and water surveying with its unique 3-D mapping software solutions, with two national organisations. A £2.0 million per annum work where it will use the quantitative capabilities of its UAV and 3-D mapping solutions to provide unique solutions to two national aggregates (quarry) industry participants and inspection opportunities for offshore assets for wind and other industries amounting to more than £1.0 million which are at an earlier stage and are likely to grow further.

Tavistock Investment (TAVI.L) Announced, in its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2015, that revenue stood at £15.96 million, compared to £1.34 million in the same period last year. Operating loss stood at £1.57 million, compared to £0.92 million. Loss after tax was £1.52 million, compared to £0.91 million. Basic loss per share stood at 0.61p, compared to a basic loss per share of 1.10p. Diluted loss per share stood at 0.56p, compared to 1010p. In October 2015, it issued share options under the Company’s EMI Share Option Scheme to all employees once they have been with the company for two years. A proportion of these options become capable of exercise after a further three years of employment with the Group and the balance become exercisable two years later.

Tesco Plc (TSCO.L) Announced that it has reached agreement in principle to settle a class action commenced in New York on behalf of the holders of the company’s American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”).

ULS Technology Plc (ULS.L) Announced, in its half year results for the six months ended 30 September 2015, that revenue stood at £97.56 million, compared to £82.34 million in the same period last year. Operating profit stood at £1.63 million, compared to £0.10 million. Profit after tax was £1.12 million, compared to a loss after tax of £0.09 million. Basic earnings per share stood at £0.02, compared to a basic loss per share of £0.002. Diluted earnings per share stood at £0.02, compared to a basic loss per share of £0.002. The Company announced that it will pay an interim dividend of 1.05 pence per share; this is a five per cent increase on the dividend paid for the six months to 31 March 2015. The dividend record date will be 4 December 2015 and the dividend is expected to be paid on 18 December 2015. It further added that Legal Eye acquisition is now fully integrated into the Group and contributing positively.

Wood Group (John)Plc (WG..L) Announced that it won a new contract worth approximately $90 million to deliver services to one of the world’s leading blue-chip international oil companies (IOC) in Iraq. The company will provide project management for an onshore facility under the three year contract, which is effective immediately.