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Oxford Instruments: Liberum Capital raises target price from 1445p to 1515p, buy rating kept.

New World Resources: JP Morgan reduces target price from 260p to 210p and downgrades to underweight. Jefferies cuts target price from 300p to 275p and reiterates hold recommendation. Credit Suisse raises target price from 200p to 210p, underperform rating unchanged.

Moneysupermarket.com: UBS raises target price from 160p to 170p, buy raiting maintained.

Liontrust Asset Management: JP Morgan raises target price from 67p to 95p, underweight rating kept.

Lamprell: Nomura reduces target price from 125p to 90p and upgrades from reduce to neutral.

ICAP: JP Morgan reduces target price from 350p to 324p, neutral recommendation unchanged. Berenberg reduces target price from 425p to 370p, hold rating kept. Barclays Capital cuts target price from 410p to 370p, overweight rating kept. UBS reduces target price from 305p to 290p, neutral rating remains maintained.

Hydrogen: Seymour Pierce downgrades from buy to hold, target price kept at 90p.

Hunting: Nomura cuts target price from 750p to 745p, neutral rating kept.

Euromoney Institutional: Westhouse Securities raises target price from 855p to 893p, add rating remains unchanged.

Darty: Seymour Pierce cuts target price from 50p to 45p, hold rating reiterated. UBS reduces target price from 65p to 50p, buy rating maintained.

Carphone Warehouse Group: Deutsche Bank raises target price from 190p to 200p, buy rating kept. Citigroup raises target price from 195p to 212p, buy rating remains unchanged.

Atkins (WS): Investec reduces target price from 727p to 700p, hold recommendation maintained.

AMEC: Nomura raises target price from 1240p to 1340p, buy rating remains unchanged. Barclays Capital reduces target price from 1350p to 1320p, underweight rating kept.

Engineering consultancy AMEC said it was trading in line with expectations despite ongoing economic uncertainty. The firm said mining activity was slowing, but conventional oil and gas activity remained strong, particularly in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Its order book was £3.6bn at the end of October, compared to £3.3bn the previous year, and down slightly from £3.7bn in June. "We are on track to deliver double-digit underlying revenue growth for the full year and we expect to deliver good growth in 2013," said Chief Executive Samir Brikho. "We continue to target EPS of greater than 100 pence before 2015." Net cash at the end of October dropped to £124m after share and acquisition-related outflows. This compared with £430m the previous year and £290m in June. The company added that the integration of two recent acquisitions was on track - Serco's 600-person nuclear Technical Services business and Unidel, a 260-person energy, resources and infrastructure engineering and consultancy business in Australia.

Operating profit at the firm's network arm was up 19.3% to £399.5m, while profits at its retail division leapt to £75.7m, following a loss of £101.4m a year ago. Retail profits made up 12.6% of profits, with an energy supply profit margin of just 1.5%. Its wholesale division saw operating profit plunge 44.5% to £123.2m. SSE stuck to its previous line that it would not provide an outlook for adjusted profit before tax before the publication of its third quarter statement. It put this down to economic uncertainty, particularly over the electricity generation market in the UK, as well as its focus on dividend growth.

Energy supplier SSE posted a 38 per cent jump in profits in the first half and immediately moved to offset a media storm over its hike in household bills last month. The firm pushed up its dividend 5% to 25.2p as earnings per share leapt 40.6% to 35.3p. In a move clearly meant to limit reputational damage, its financial report begins with Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of SSE, explaining why the jump in profit could be justified after the rise in bills. "Prices achieved for generating electricity have been weak, and higher gas and non-energy costs unfortunately had to be reflected in the increase in household energy prices which SSE implemented last month," he said. "The Energy Supply business accounted for 8.1% of SSE's adjusted operating profit in the period and its profit margin was 1.5%." His statement goes on to say: "I believe that profit and dividend allow SSE to employ people, pay tax, provide services that customers need, make investments that keep the lights on and create jobs, while providing an income return that shareholders like pension funds need". The company is targeting a full-year increase in its dividend of at least 2% more than RPI inflation, to around 84p for 2012/13, and annual increases that are above RPI inflation in the following years.

Verticals Looking at it by verticals: Money - Revenues in the Money vertical were 2% ahead of the third quarter 2011 on visitor volumes that were 9% higher. Insurance - Insurance revenues were 14% ahead and visitor volumes 17% ahead, of the same period last year. Travel - Revenues in Travel were 2% ahead of the third quarter 2011 on visitor volumes that increased by 17%. Home Services - Home Services revenues were 35% ahead of the third quarter 2011 with visitor numbers up by 21%. Cash conversion also continues to be strong. At October 31st the group had net debt of £2.5m, reflecting the payment since the half year of the interim dividend of £9.3m together with the acquisition of MoneySavingExpert.com (£35m), corporation tax payments on account of £6.6m and capital expenditure of £4.3m In addition, the company hasn't seen any "meaningful impact' from Google Advisor's launch of money products during the second quarter of 2012 and the launch of its car insurance product in September. Consensus estimates for the full year, ending December 31st 2012 are for pre-tax profits of £46.69m on revenues of £202.08m, with earnings per share of 7.91p. This puts it on a forward price earnings ratio of 19.3.

MoneySupermarket.com traded well in its third quarter and reports that "expectations for the year remain unchanged". Trading in the fourth quarter has continued to be good: "Group revenues including MoneySavingExpert are approximately 20% ahead of the same period last year. Revenues excluding MoneySavingExpert are approximately 15% ahead of the same period last year." Third quarter results, including that from MoneySavingExpert.com which it acquired on September 21st , were in line. "Group revenues and EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] for the third quarter were, respectively, 11% and 12% ahead of the same period last year. Excluding the contribution from MoneySavingExpert.com internet revenues and EBITDA for the third quarter were each 11% ahead of the same period last year.

Newsagent chain WH Smith has got off to a subdued start to its new financial year, with sales down year-on-year, though margins continue to harden. Total sales in the 10 weeks since September 1st were down 3% year-on-year, while like-for-like (LFL) sales were down 4%. The group has become used to sales drifting lower, however - in the last financial year LFL sales were down 5% - and has been concentrating on boosting margins. WHSmith Travel, the division that runs the group's newsagents in airports, stations and bus depots, saw flat total sales while like-for-like sales were down 4%. Gross margin has increased in line with the board's plan and the store opening plan continues to make good progress both in the UK and internationally. WHSmith High Street total sales and like for like sales were down 5% in the period. Again, gross margin has increased in line with expectations and costs continue to be managed tightly. The group's financial position is in line with market expectations, the statement revealed. "Whilst the current climate continues to be challenging, we remain a resilient business and are well positioned for continued profitable growth," WH Smith said.

Pace's CEO Mike Pulli commented: "We continue to make good progress in executing our strategy and becoming a more profitable, cash generative company with a broader commercial opportunity." "We have made significant steps in transforming our supply chain and the continued focus on operational improvement will deliver further operational savings in 2013. The demand we are seeing for our innovative next generation Media Server products underpins our strong revenue growth in H2 2012." Pace added that it is confident about its trajectory and remains firmly focused on execution in the remainder of the year and beyond.