Broker tips: Morrison, Vodafone, Afren...

While Morrison surpassed market forecasts with its half yearly results on Thursday, H2O Markets has reiterated its sell rating on the supermarket giant on the back of an uncertain outlook for the UK consumer.Pre-tax profits rose to £449m from £412m the previous year, turnover climbed to £8.7bn from £8.1bn, while like-for-like sales rose by 2.2%. "In spite of these numbers, in the view of H2O Markets the longer term prognosis remains unchanged, as the negative influence of austerity measures and the grocer's geographic exposure will inevitably weigh more heavily in the weeks and months to come," said H2O economist Eku Kobayashi.While Credit Suisse still believes that Vodafone can outperform the FTSE 100 in the next 12 months, it has cut its earnings forecasts to reflect a weaker European economic outlook.Following poor economic indicators, accelerated austerity plans in Italy, Greece and Spain, and cuts to gross domestic product (GDP) estimates, the Swiss broker now assumes weaker growth trends for countries across Europe.In turn, as the broker continues to see a direct relationship between real GDP and mobile spend, earnings per share forecasts by up to 7% for Vodafone.The target price is cut from 185p to 175p.RBS sees Wednesday's merger between Vallares and Genel as a net positive for the UK exploration and production (E&P) companies already present in Kurdistan, particularly Afren and Heritage Oil."We estimate that the [Afren's] recent entry into Kurdistan was on an acquisition multiple of US$1.94/bbl (counting the light oil resource in Barda Rash only). While a discount (with respect to the US$5.90/bbl 2P for Genel) for Afren's Barda Rash light oil is warranted given the lack of a formal development plan and the fact that Tawke and Taq Taq are already producing, we believe that the Genel metric reflects positively on Afren's assets," said RBS analyst Phil Corbett.Sector peer Heritage Oil has also been highlighted as a benefiter from the deal: "although the monetisation of the Miran West gas resource is likely to be a long-term game, we believe that the introduction of Vallares management team could add real impetus to a commercialisation plan. This could have a meaningful impact, particularly when we gauge that current sentiment is relatively subdued," Corbett said.BC