Broker tips: Flutter Entertainment, Howden Joinery, Hochschild Mining, Man Group

Citi opened a 30-day "positive catalyst watch" on shares of Flutter Entertainment on Tuesday ahead of its results on 13 August.

"Our Q2 preview points to broad-based strength across the Flutter portfolio," the bank said. "We forecast Q2 Revenue growth of +15% (Q1 +16%), with US revenue growth at +33% driven by a joint record net win margin. Ex-US, we expect bookmaker friendly results (football/soccer) to boost both UK & Ireland and International Q2 revenue growth (expect negligible results impact in Australia) and forecast broadly stable momentum otherwise."

Citi, which has a 'buy' rating and £200 target price on the Flutter, said it was 3% ahead of consensus on 2Q24 estimated revenue, with underlying earnings even further ahead as it expects incremental revenue from strong win margins across large parts of its business (especially US and UK & Ireland) to drop through meaningfully to its bottom line.

RBC Capital Markets downgraded Howden Joinery on Tuesday to 'sector perform' from 'outperform' to reflect limited implied upside.

"Howden has continued to take share in what remains a challenging market," the bank said. "We think Howden is well positioned heading into peak Autumn trading (P21) followed by an expected market recovery in 2025e.

However, the Canadian bank also reckons this was now largely expected, with shares trading on a 2025 estimated price-to-earnings of over 17x versus a long-term average of circa 16x.

RBC lifted its price target on the shares to 980.0p from 920.0p, reflecting a higher mid-term margin.

Canaccord Genuity has hiked its target price for Hochschild Mining from 190.0p to 220.0p on the back of last week's strong first-half production report and improving pricing outlook.

Hochschild produced 83,034 of gold equivalent ounces (oz AuEq) in the second quarter, ahead of Canaccord's 78,000 estimate, which the broker said "lays the groundwork for an even stronger 2H24".

Canaccord Genuity said the main differential was better-than-expected output from Hochschild's flagship gold and silver mine in southern Peru, Inmaculada, and the Mara Rosa gold mine in Brazil.

The Canadian broker lifted its 2024 and 2025 production forecasts by 4% to 343,000oz and 367,000oz AuEq, respectively, and maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock. It also noted that its new target price for the shares implied 27% potential upside.

"We see the recent share price consolidation as another opportunity to build positions in HOC."

Deutsche Bank downgraded Man Group on Tuesday to 'hold' from 'buy' and cut its price target on the stock to 280.0p from 325.0p as it noted growing risks to performance fees, flows and incremental share buybacks from the weakening short-term investment performance.

The German bank said: "Whilst the recent H124 results were broadly in line with our expectations, this has been clouded somewhat by a short-term outlook including weakening investment performance, a large expected redemption in Q3, slightly softer run-rate revenue margins and some cost headwinds."