Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Shares in Premier Inn and Costa owner Whitbread received a boost on Friday from UBS which upgraded its rating on the stock from 'sell' to 'neutral'.The bank hiked its target price on the shares from 4,700p to 5,400p, but said: "The valuation is certainly not cheap."Spirits group Diageo was shot down by analysts at Credit Suisse on Friday as they lowered their recommendation on the Smirnoff and Baileys maker from 'neutral' to 'underperform'.The bank, which cut its target price from 1,850p to 1,700p, said that the company's three drivers of earnings growth since 2008 - North American, scotch and African beer - each face structural challenges."In our view, the share price does not reflect a backdrop of falling returns and weaker earnings growth relative to peers," Credit Suisse said.JPMorgan Cazenove has said that the potential sale of TSB Banking Group would be good for 50% owner Lloyds, saying it could ease competition concerns in the sector."Overall, we think an acquisition of TSB by Sabadell would be positive for Lloyds," JPMorgan said. "1) it removes TSB's IT reliance on Lloyds; 2) would remove any capital hit from the TSB sale; and 3) TSB may be seen as an enhanced competitor in the UK retail market, potentially reducing regulatory and political pressure around lack of competition for the UK Retail banking sector."Asos's share price pulled back slightly on Friday after a massive jump the previous day as Japanese broker Nomura cut its stance on the shares from 'buy' to 'neutral' despite a forecast-beating second quarter from the online fashion retailer."With some regret - as the Asos equity story excites - we believe it is appropriate to cut our rating to 'neutral' as it is early days in the Asos recovery story and the shares have performed well," said analyst Fraser Ramzan.