Broker tips: Lloyds, BP, Invensys

Lloyds' first-quarter results were modestly ahead of consensus estimates, but Nomura has maintained its 'reduce' rating for the bank, saying that the strong share-price reaction on Tuesday morning was overdone.Nomura thinks that Lloyds' cost guidance - to reduce total costs to £9.6bn this year, better than previous £9.8bn target - will likely drive headline upgrades to consensus estimate of 1-2% but this is driven by the sale of its stake in St James's Place relative to current expectations. The broker said that the "core cost of risk has not improved from the 2012 run rate".Investec has kept its 'hold' rating for BP but has hailed a "very strong" first-quarter result from the oil giant."The statement refers to higher costs, lower production and a weaker downstream in Q2 so earnings upgrades may be more muted than the Q1 headline figures might suggest. Nevertheless, this is an encouraging start to the year for BP."Societe Generale has upgraded its recommendation for Invensys from 'hold' to 'buy', saying that the engineering and software company has an improved investment profile with substantial margin and M&A upside.The broker has raised its target price for the stock from 330p to 415p. "In a take-out scenario, we estimate new Invensys could potentially be valued at 460p, around 30% upside to current levels".BC