Broker tips: Tullow Oil, Experian, Home Retail

News of a multibillion-dollar write-down at Tullow Oil sent the share price in the exploration company lower on Thursday, though analysts at Westhouse Securities retained their positive rating on the stock.

While the size of the $2.3bn write-down (after tax), is likely to disappoint investors, the broker said: “The fundamental long-term production/cashflow growth story remains intact in our view and we would be buyers of Tullow on any weakness.”

Headline group growth at Experian missed analysts’ forecasts on Thursday, but Shore Capital’s Robin Speakman applauded the stronger-than-expected third-quarter performance from the core credit services division.

“The data services specialist continues to report mixed trading patterns across the group, impacted by a number of short-term trading items offsetting strong performances in the core credit divisions across the regions,” Speakman said.

Home Retail, the owner of the Argos and Homebase, sacrificed like-for-like (LFL) sales in the third quarter to protect profitability, according to Canaccord Genuity.

Given the improved outlook for margins and despite the poor LFL performance, Canaccord said it would not be changing its forecasts and kept a ‘hold’ rating for the stock.