Friday newspaper share tips: Pendragon, Weir Group

The recent drop in shares of car dealer Pendragon might be an interesting opportunity for investors, The Times´s Tempus said.

It is a well-run outfit, offering a solid dividend which is well-covered by cashflow and with little debt to boot, the tipster explained.

Some observers may be worried that the end is nigh for the extraordinary increase in new car sales, even the company´s boss Trevor Finn, but as long as interest rates remain low the lease-model will continue to be a winner.

Furthermore, Finn stresses that the company is not that exposed to the new car market anyhow.

The need to fix second-hand cars looks set to continue and the firm is opening establshments in new territories, a total of 40 new stores over the course of the next five years.

"Buy a few shares, Britain loves cars and for as long as interest rates remain low, the lease model looks set to be a winner," Tempus said.

The upheaval in the market for oil field services as the price of crude oil saw Weir Group´s share price more than halve, with the stock being forced out of the FTSE 100 in September, but it remains a long-term hold, Tempus said.

Trading at the engineering group´s oil and gas unit continued to be terrible in the first three months of the year, with a 47% like-for-like slump.

Nevertheless, indications from its minerals division point to improvement and the restructued flow control arm appeared to have a more solid order book.

Chief Keith Cochrane has proved adept at walking the tightrope between keeping the business slimmed down while not cutting too much into capacity, which might hurt the outfit´s ability to share in a long-term recovery.

The market has responded in kind and the stock is well up from its lows reached in February.

"Weir Group stock is a long-term hold, if the oil market stabilises, Weir can quickly scale up in North America," Tempus concluded.