LOG.L Share News (LOG)

Healthy growth in Scandinavia should support Logica's revenue growth in the first half, claims UniCredit, which reiterated its buy rating on the business and technology service provider.Logica, which provides business consulting, systems integration and outsourcing to clients, is expected to see sales in the first half ended 31 June grow by 8.6% year-on-year (yoy) in Sweden and by 7.7% in Northern and Central Europe."In our view, the primary read across for Logica is Tieto's [a Finland-based IT service provider] strong performance in Scandinavia (+12% yoy acc), supported by growth of the public and healthcare sector in Sweden." The target price is left at 155p.As the risks mount up at Dixons Retail, UBS downgrades the electricals retailer from neutral to sell, saying that trading is "set to remain tougher for longer".The Swiss broker thinks that Dixons, which owns PC World and Currys, is likely to report a weak first quarter "given the tough World Cup comparative [of last year] but we expect [the second half] to remain tough".UBS expects a like-for-like sales decline of 2% in the second half, and when combined with an estimated 8% fall in the first half, it works out to a 5% decrease for the full year.The target price is in turn slashed to 14p, from 18p previously.Following Wolfson Microelectronics' 2011 guidance downgrade on Monday, Peel Hunt cut its rating from hold to sell and slashed its earnings forecasts for the next two years.Revenues are now expected to be between $37m and $44m in the third quarter, well below Peel Hunt's expectations of $49m. 2011 revenue guidance was cut from 10-20% growth (predicted in June) to below 10%."This is clearly an industry issue and [Wolfson's] design-in momentum continues to be strong [...] However, with low visibility into 2012, both in terms of the broad semiconductor backdrop and specific customer volumes (particularly in non-Apple tablets), medium-term downgrades are also necessary," said analyst Alex Jarvis.The target price now stands at 155p, down from 174p previously.BC