Broker tips: Spirent Communications, Cranswick

Canaccord Genuity analysts trimmed their target price for Spirent Communications, but kept their recommendation at 'speculative buy'.

They described the telecommunications testing company's interims as "soft" but said that orders had seen an "encouraging" pick up.

Furthermore, they 20% year-on-year dop in first half sales had already been telegraphed by the outfit in previous updates.

However, Spirent had managed its cost base "well" and there had been clear signs of improvement regarding demand and the outlook for the second half.

Canaccord trimmed its target from 250.0p to 240.0p but kept its recommendation at 'speculative buy'.

Analysts at Berenberg hiked their target price for shares of Cranswick.

In their view, the food producer would be able to continue outperforming rivals in terms of volumes.

They also said that high pork pricing would allow Cranswick to deliver better-than-expected outcomes.

And yet, the company's shares were changing hands around one standard deviation beneath its long-run historical averages.

Their target price was raised from 4,000.0p to 4,600.0p and reiterated their 'buy' recommendation.