FTSE 250 movers: Poor start to week as analyst note drives Wood Group down

It was a poor start to the week for the FTSE 250, with the second tier market down 313.83 points (1.96%) to 15,688.45 by mid-afternoon on Monday.

Wood Group was one of the market’s biggest fallers, as Goldman Sachs downgraded the company from ‘neutral’ to ‘sell’ and cut its target price from 639.6p to 517.6p.

In a note on Monday, the investment bank focused on working capital analysis, which it believed would be the key there for the oil services sector this year.

“As low oil prices lead to negative free cash flow generation for oil producers, we believe oil services companies will face delayed payments that they will largely have to accept given the high competition for new orders created by a lack of order intake in the industry.” It said it sees working capital risks for Wood Group, saying the market overestimates the company’s resilience. “We see risks of a material miss vs. 2016 consensus expectations given indications of spending cuts from US E&Ps and muted North Sea activity.”

Ocado shares also dipped on the back of a note from Barclays, saying it is struggling to have “sufficient faith in an imminent international deal” to justify upgrading the stock.

The bank said Ocado isn’t the only option for grocers wanting to build an online business. “Having said this, we are very sympathetic to Ocado’s view that it is offering a much more comprehensive solution and that many retailers will prefer to fully ‘own’ their customer relationships.”

Barclays said while the company remained confident, the reality is there wasn’t a deal in 2015 and there’ no evident timeline. “Although we expect that the signing of a deal with a credible partner would be a considerable boost for sentiment, we are also a little wary of assuming that this would answer all the market’s doubts.” Its target price was cut from 420p to 290p but the bank retained its ‘equal weight’ rating.

On the other side of the coin, Poundland shares surged after Deutsche Bank upgraded the company from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ – a move it said was controversial - but cut its price target from 200p to 180p.

It said the company has had a challenging start to the year, but believed the company can help itself to offset the challenges it faces. It said consensus earnings for the year to the end of March have fallen by 40%, due to weak sales and the 99p Stores business.

“We have little expectation that like for like sales trends will improve in the near-term, so operational deleverage risks remain.” However Deutsche Bank did see two years of “exceptionally strong” earnings growth, and believed positive catalysts from the company’s multi-price trials in the UK could alleviate concerns about the business model.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 74.90p 6.70%
Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) 278.60p 3.38%
Poundland Group (PLND) 150.00p 3.31%
Allied Minds (ALM) 313.00p 2.35%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 210.60p 2.23%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 163.00p 2.07%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,502.00p 2.04%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 764.50p 1.93%
DFS Furniture (DFS) 312.90p 1.59%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 282.50p 1.58%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Wood Group (John) (WG.) 581.50p -7.77%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 359.50p -6.87%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 242.10p -6.53%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 216.70p -6.51%
Just Eat (JE.) 355.60p -6.27%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 136.70p -6.24%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 175.40p -6.05%
Rightmove (RMV) 3,481.00p -5.12%
Drax Group (DRX) 250.80p -5.07%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 84.30p -5.07%