LOG.L Share News (LOG)

Jefferies has maintained its hold rating for pay-TV and broadband group British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), but says that James Murdoch's decision to step down as Chairman 'deflects some of the political risk following the phone-hacking scandal'."The key issue for Sky's board is to be seen as independent to avoid getting caught in regulatory red tape," said analyst Will Smith. Nevertheless, Jefferies believes that Murdoch is an "asset" to BSkyB "given his deep knowledge of the business from his days as CEO and we see his retention on the board as a positive."The broker retained its 700p target price for BSkyB.UBS has downgraded its rating for insurance group Resolution from buy to neutral, saying that the stock's valuation looks 'less exciting'.Last week, the firm said that it could split its business into two to attract a buyer, something that UBS thinks would release only limited value. "A better alternative, in our view, would be to focus purely on improving the return on enterprise value and doing further accretive deals like Phoenix," the broker said."The absence of buyback and unexciting exit story mean we are cutting from buy to neutral." The broker has also reduced its target price from 300p to 250p.Merchant Securities continues to recommend selling shares of business solutions provider Logica following the news that Seamus Keating will be leaving the group as head of its Benelux operations.The broker notes that Benelux had its worst performance ever in 2011 and the company believes that the division should improve to at least break-even this year."Beyond 2012 we remain sceptical that there is a genuine turnaround underway," said analyst Roger Phillips.Merchant maintains an 85p target.BC