Canaccord downgrades Fisher to 'hold', sees little upside for now

Canaccord Genuity has cut its rating for James Fisher and Sons from 'buy' to 'hold', saying that the marine engineering services group still has a long way to go in its turnaround.

The broker left its 375p target price for the stock unchanged, but pointed out that the shares are trading close to one-year highs and so there is a "less compelling risk/reward".

"Fisher has achieved a lot in the past 12 months: the business has been stabilised, the debt has started to be dealt with and the number of 'problem children' in the group is sharply down," said analyst Alex Brooks.

Fisher achieved this by disposing of one of its strongest businesses, RMSpumptools, and stopping operations at Subtech Europe along with other smaller disposals, the analyst said.

"This week's 1H results demonstrates that whilst there is a path to improvement, we are still some distance away from the target of 15% return on capital and there are some hints of the capital needs to get there," Brooks said.

"We expect the next step in performance to require demonstrating further organic growth, not only from the successful units - bubble curtains, commercial diving and subsea rescue - but also from some of the more challenged units."