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Marston's: HSBC raises target price from 125p to 140p and maintains an overweight rating.

ITE Group: Investec raises target price from 247p to 255p and maintains a buy recommendation

InterContinental Hotels Group: JP Morgan raises target price from 1635p to 1650p and keeps a neutral rating.

Informa: Nomura raises target price from 530p to 545p and maintains its buy recommendation. Barclays moves target price from 480p to 490p, while keeping an overweight rating.

Home Retail Group: Bank of America upgrades from neutral to buy.

Hargreaves Services: Jefferies reduces target price from 1085p to 1035p and reiterates its buy recommendation. Westhouse Securities reduces target price from 927p to 829p, while maintaining an add rating. WH Ireland downgrades from buy to hold.

Halfords: Bank of America downgrades from buy to neutral.

Experian: Nomura raises target price from 1035p to 1215p; buy recommendation unchanged.

Darty: Alphavalue upgrades to buy; target price of 58p remains unchanged.

Consort Medical: Jefferies raises target price from 880p to 930p, while maintaining a buy recommendation. Numis raises target price from 940p to 1000p keeping its buy recommendation. Investec raises target price from 695p to 854p and upgrades to hold.

Cairn Energy: Societe Generale cuts target price from 290p to 280p, while keeping a hold recommendation.

British Sky Broadcasting Group: Nomura raises target price from 950p to 975p and reiterates a buy recommendation.

Brewin Dolphin Holdings: Peel Hunt raises target price from 185p to 230p and maintains a buy rating.

Wed 05 December 2012 11:01 A A A Anglo American: Morgan Stanley reduces target price from 2110p to 1802p and keeps an equal weight rating.

Positive Points: Although conditions on the European mainland toughened, the UK and Ireland business grew 4%, driven by a strong performance in maintenance and support. In June, Sage announced the acquisition of a controlling interest in Folhamtic, a leading provider of accounting, tax and payroll and regulatory content software in Brazil. It paid a total consideration of £125 million. In November 2011, Sage completed the sale of Sage Healthcare to Vista Equity Partners. The net cash inflow from the sale was £198.9 million which was returned to shareholders through a share buyback programme. As part of the group's strategy, Sage undertook a resource allocation programme to drive investment in growth and centralised R&D in its three largest markets.

Negative Points: Management said the trading environment in Europe remained challenging during the year. Spain had been the worst hit of its markets, and remains in deep recession, but uncertain and deteriorating conditions in France also impacted on performance, a situation that management said would not change for the foreseeable future. Competition is continuing to grow in the small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) arena where barriers to entry are relatively low, attracting more companies to enter the market. Germany's SAP and Microsoft are much bigger companies than Sage and could disrupt sector trends. The company's core (SME's) customer base appears to have suffered more at the hands of the banking credit crisis. Sage has exposure to foreign exchange risk, notably Euro/US$.

Financial Highlights: Sage Group reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £356.3 million, an increase of 4% over the year. Revenue edged up 2% to £1.3 billion with growth accelerating towards the end of the year, particularly in North America, said the group. The board have proposed a final dividend of 6.67p per share, resulting in a total dividend for the year of 10.15p per share, an increase of 4% year-on-year. £299.8 million was returned to shareholders in the year through a share buyback programme. Group net debt stood at £161.5 million at 30 September 2012 (£121.7 million at 30 June 2012) and (£24.9 million as at 30 September 2011).

Full year results: Sage reports good progress on strategic initiatives. Sage's results were in line with expectations, and while Europe remains weak, management said there were encouraging signs of growth accelerating towards the end of the year, driven by an improved performance in North America. Chief Executive Guy Berruyer said that it was a solid performance in the context of a macro-economic environment that remained difficult in most of its markets. Sage reported that its key strategic initiatives were progressing well. 289,000 new paying customers were recorded during the year (2011 - 261,000) with a renewal rate of 81% maintained on support contracts. The company saw good growth in payments with Sage Pay up 25% year-on-year. In the UK, Sage One, its online bookkeeping and business management software solution reached 6,100 paying customers, with the product being launched in the US. With a commitment to driving strategic change, upbeat outlook comments saw management encouraged with the momentum established with its growth initiatives, whilst mindful of the uncertain global macro-economic outlook, notably Europe, and France in particular.

Founded in 1981 whilst studying together at Newcastle University, David Goldman together with Paul Muller and Graham Wylie, Sage initially developed estimating and accounting software for small businesses. Today, the group’s core activity remains the development, distribution and support of business management software products to a range of smaller and medium sized businesses. Products include the renowned Sage accounting package, payroll and human resources software, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), fixed asset management and healthcare software. Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, it now has 6.3 million customers and 13,400 employees worldwide. Sage operates in over 24 countries covering the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, India and China.

"Our established brands are performing well and our newly introduced lines have started the season with encouraging sales," it said. Character believes that current weak trading is only a 'temporary setback' and underlined its confidence in future trading by recommending an increased final dividend of 3.3p compared to 3p in 2011. Together with the interim dividend paid in July, this makes a total for the year of 6.6p up from 6p before. "The current round of product previews with our major customers, in which we present next season's ranges, have gone far better than expected. This leads us to believe that we have a much stronger product portfolio to take us forward into the next season."