UBS issues SThree with 'buy' rating

Analysts at Swiss broker UBS issued a 'buy' rating on Friday for shares of London-based recruitment firm SThree together with a target price of 450p.

UBS pointed out that SThree's recent pre-tax profit of £44.5m represented growth of 4.5% at constant currency and a conversion margin of 15.6%, but noted that current expectations for the group's 2018 trading year looked "conservative".

The analysts noted that consensus pre-tax profit of £49.2m for SThree implied 6% year-on-year growth for a company that was currently tracking at 8%.

"Sthree does not typically disclose trading trends so early in the year, but we expect commentary to confirm strong trading as well: after Q4 growth of +8%, we expect +8% in Q1e.PBT of £44.5m, representing FY17 constant currency growth of 4.5% and conversion margin of 15.6%," the analysts said.

As of 1630 GMT, shares had fallen 4.39% to 370.00p.