Wednesday tips round-up: Computacenter, Bunzl, Booker...

Mike Norris, the chief executive of Computacenter, claims to be more pleased by the successful transition of the group's British operations to a new IT programme, which went live yesterday morning, than he is with interim figures yesterday, says the Tempus team at the Times. But the upgrade, which follows a similar process in Germany and with France soon to follow, does remove a block on the group making further significant acquisitions, even if a small French deal was completed in April. The company has a little more than £100 million in the bank and available to spend. Across the group, profits before tax were 24.9 per cent higher at £26.6 million. The interim dividend is raised by 1p to 4½p, which will please the two founders who still own about half the shares and gives these, up 4.6p to 374.1p last night, the support of a decent 4 per cent yield. They sell on about ten times' this year's earnings and at least merit a strong hold, suggests the Times.Bunzl is 10 times the size of its nearest competitor and uses that scale to pass on savings to its customers, says the Questor team at the Telegraph. The company keeps growing via more acquisitions, and had good news on that front at yesterday's half-year results. In the six months to June, Bunzl spent £123m on seven companies. It was a busy six months for corporate activity. Bunzl also announced the sale of its UK drinks vending unit, Provend, yesterday. That looks like a good move for the group. Bunzl has been a Questor favourite for a long time, ?although our last recommendation was to hold. In terms of valuation, it is hard to compare the group with its peers as it has no close competitors. Instead it is worth looking at the company's track record. Over the past 15 years, Bunzl shares have traded on an average of 15 times earnings. They are currently on around 11 times this year's earnings, with a forecast yield of 3.7pc, making them a strong buy, says the Telegraph.The recent trading update from US cash and carry operator Booker for the quarter to June demonstrated its resilience against a difficult economic backdrop, according to the Scotsman. Like-for-like sales increased by more than 7 per cent during the period versus the prior year, a level of growth significantly ahead of the UK supermarkets. While a number of one-off factors boosted sales, Booker continues to grow its market share within the sector. The company has sufficient firepower to make acquisitions, although we believe it is unlikely that anything significant will be announced this year. We believe the stock is undervalued, according to the Scotsman, which recommends a buy.The gambling industry tends to react to Paddy Power with a weary "not them again, give it a rest", says the Investment Column at the Independent. Ladbrokes and William Hill's noisy neighbour from across the Irish Sea is an expert in marketing and PR. While bookies are struggling to look good this year, partly because of the weak economic backdrop and partly because last year's figures were flattered by a punters blowing millions on the World Cup, Paddy Power turned in underlying pre-tax profits of €56.8m (£50.3m), up 15 per cent, with the online and telephone operations standing out. This is no mean feat. In light of Paddy's performance and the chance that it could exceed expectations yet again, we would certainly stick with our investment, says the Independent.Afren is best known for its focus on Africa, more specifically Nigeria, but last month it paid a maximum of $588 million (£361 million) for two oil interests in Kurdish Iraq, raising $184.5 million to part-fund the deal. This was an entirely opportunistic one, but it takes Afren into an exciting, if politically charged, location, says the Tempus team at the Times. It raises the company's potential reserves from 137 million barrels to potentially one billion-plus, but there is as yet no law in place in Iraq to recognise existing contracts between the Kurds and Western oil interests. The shares have taken a serious beating, having lost 30 per cent of their value this month. This might seem to provide a useful entry point; but, as ever with oil explorers, this is a highly speculative investment, says the Times.BCPlease note: Digital Look provides a round-up of news, tips and information that is impacting share prices and the market. Digital Look cannot take any responsibility for information provided by third parties. This is for your general information only as not intended to be relied upon by users in making an investment decision or any other decision. Please obtain a copy of the relevant publication and carry out your own research before considering acting on any of this information.