Broker Tips: Johnson Matthey, Vodafone, Greene King, Sports Direct, Diageo

Johnson Matthey rose 2.4% on Tuesday, topping the FTSE 100 leader board after Citigroup upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral' and raised the price target to 3,600p from 3,200p.Citi pointed out that 50% of the company's earnings before interest and tax is based on emission catalysts for light duty vehicles (LDV) and heavy duty diesel vehicles and said the bank's analysis suggests both these markets are likely to deliver high single-digit growth for the foreseeable future.In addition, the bank said Johnson Matthey is a key beneficiary of sector growth due to its favourable regional and product mix. It said the company's LDV catalyst business is likely to outperform the market by a compound 150 basis points over the next five years.Vodafone's share price was boosted on Tuesday by an upgrade to 'buy' from 'neutral' by Nomura. The broker said the proposed asset swaps with Liberty Global could lead to a golden opportunity.It hiked its target price for the shares from 235p to 290p.While the UK company assured that it is not in talks regarding a full merger of the two groups, Nomura reckons that asset swap discussions are "just the start" and could lead to wider negotiations.Barclays upgraded Greene King to 'overweight' from 'equalweight' and raised the target price to 935p from 835p.It said Greene King has one of the strongest investment cases in the sector due to its expansion programme and rising return on capital employed.Barclays pointed to the potential for mid to high single digits earnings growth, augmented by a yield of around 4% yield.Shares in retailer Sport Direct were in fashion on Tuesday after RBC Capital Markets raised its stance on the stock from 'sector perform' to 'outperform'.The broker said the business is "regaining momentum", as it upgraded its target price for the shares from 650p to 800p.After raising its earnings estimates for the company, RBC said the stock has one of the lowest price-to-earnings ratios in the sector.Nomura upgraded Diageo to 'buy' from 'neutral' and raised the target price to 2,180p from 1,930p."Following recent meetings with the company, we are more confident that the 'bad news flow' for the company is abating and that a recovery in growth should become visible in full-year 2016," said Nomura.The Japanese bank said that with an improving outlook, it has fewer concerns about a possible dividend disappointment with full-year results at the end of July.