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May Gurney: Investec maintains sell rating and 100p target.

Legal & General: Credit Suisse downgrades to neutral, target cut from 144p to 142p.

AstraZeneca: Morgan Stanley upgrades to equal weight.

ASOS: Jefferies keeps buy rating and 2,199p target.

The wife of Henry Engelhardt, the Chief Executive Officer of car insurance group Admiral, topped up the family stake in the car insurance group again on Thursday, taking her investment in this week alone to over two million pounds. Diane Briere de l'Isle bought 45,500 shares at yesterday at a price of 1,108p, costing her £504,140. In addition to the other two shares purchase she made on Tuesday and Wednesday, she bought a total of 191,907 shares this week, spending a combined £2.12m. 'Henry Engelhardt and Family' holdings now total 38,005,472 ordinary shares in Admiral, lifting its stake to over 14%. The purchases came just a few days after Admiral's first-half results (on August 30th) in which it reported a 7% rise in pre-tax profit to £171.8m and a 6% increase in group turnover to £1.17bn. However, the share price has been under pressure since the figures were released, falling by over 4%. Speaking at the time of the results, Engelhardt said: "In the UK, following the very significant growth in 2010 and 2011, we continue to slow our rate of growth to a more modest level, which we believe is a sensible response to the increased competition in the market."

Defence contractor Cobham has been awarded a five-year contract to supply on-board inert gas generating system nitrogen inert units for AH-64 Apache helicopters used by the US arm. The "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" contract is worth around $15m. More than 1,500 Apache helicopters with Cobham nitrogen inert units have been delivered worldwide, the company said.

Steve Crummett is to step down as Group Finance Director of Filtrona to be replaced with immediate effect by Matthew Gregory, currently the foam products supplier's director of Corporate Development. Gregory joined Filtrona in 2003 as Finance Director of the Moss Plastic Parts business. Before being appointed to his current role in 2010, he was Finance & Business Development Director of the Protection & Finishing Products division. In his new role, Matthew will continue to be closely involved in mergers and acquisitions activity alongside his successor as Corporate Development Director, who will be announced in due course. Crummett leaves Filtrona after six years in the post to pursue "other opportunities outside Filtrona".

Diamond mine operator Petra Diamonds has kicked off the disposal process in respect of its fissure mines in South Africa. The sale was first mooted at the end of July. The fissure mines up for grabs comprise the Helam, Sedibeng and Star assets. The Sedibeng operation is an amalgamation of the Messina and Dancarl fissure mines, as well as the Bellsbank kimberlite pipe. Helam, Sedibeng and Star are well-established fissure mines which have been in operation for more than 50 years. Helam is located 70 kilometres (km) west of Rustenburg in the North West Province, Sedibeng is located 80km north-west of Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province, and Star is located 4km south of Welkom in the Free State Province. In what reads like a classified advert, Petra Diamonds said: "Interested parties are invited to submit expressions of interest, along with signed confidentiality undertakings and completed credentials questionnaires, by no later than 5:00pm BST/ 6:00pm CAT on Friday, 21 stSeptember in order to be considered for participation in the sale process."

The assets, valued at £71.3m, will be acquired from the John Laing Group. The acquisitions will take the total number of PPP assets in the JLIF portfolio to 37. There is a chance that the size of the fund-raising exercise will be increased by up to £25m if the company makes a further third party acquisition, and if so, the additional funds will be raised through the issue of shares for subscription or placing, not an open offer. In addition, John Laing Investments wishes to place an additional 28m shares it holds in JLIF in a separate secondary placing to raise some dosh to expand its portfolio of investments, many of which, such as the recent Intercity Express Programme project, will be expected to ultimately fall into the pipeline of new projects which JLIF may acquire in future years. If the secondary placing does take place, it is expected to occur within a period of three days after the announcement of the results of the Issue. John Laing Investments Limited has irrevocably undertaken not to offer any of its shares pursuant to the secondary placing at a price of less than the issue price (i.e. 106.5p).

John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) is calling on investors to top up its war-chest after it added some more public/private partnership (PPP) assets to its portfolio. The investment firm is seeking to raise in the region of £60m through the issue of new shares at 106.5p per share, a very slight discount to the closing price of 108p for the company's shares on the day before the share issue was announced. The new shares will be made available by means of an open offer, a subscription offer and a placing. The open offer to existing John Laing Infrastructure shareholders will be on the basis of one new share for every eight shares currently held, and is pre-emptive, which means shareholders get first crack at the newly issued shares. John Laing Investments will not take up its open offer entitlement of around 7.8m new shares, and these are the shares that will be available for the subscription offer and placing. JLIF announced three new PPP investments: a 37.5% shareholding in Pembury Hospital, England; a 40% shareholding in Kromhout Barracks, Netherlands; a 50% shareholding in Forth Valley Hospital, Scotland, which will give JLIF 100% ownership of the ass

The group had net cash of around £17m at the end of the reporting period. Russell Clements, SThree's Chief Executive, described third quarter trading as satisfactory, given the difficult macro-economic back-drop, and he was especially chuffed with the performance of the Contract division, especially as it now makes up half of the group's business. "Demand in sectors such as Energy & Resources and Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology remained strong and these businesses continued to increase their contribution to the group result," Clements said. "Our balance sheet remains strong, and we are a cash generative, debt-free business. This strength allows us to continue to make selective investments for the future whilst remaining committed to maintaining our strong track record in terms of our dividend," Clements added.

"Contract performed encouragingly in the period, with strong growth in gross profit in Europe (+12%) and Rest of World (+94%), offsetting a small decline of 2% in UK. The number of contract runners at the end of Q3 was up 7% versus the start of 2012. This compares to an increase of 3% at the end of Q3 2011, indicating a stronger seasonal recovery and run rate into the final quarter of this year," the company said. Gross profit in the UK & Ireland (UK&I) declined 6% to £17.7m from £18.9m the year before. Other parts of the world picked up the slack, with gross profit up 13% to £33.6m from £31.3m a year earlier. The depressed state of the banking and financial services industry is having an effect on demand for information and communications technology (ICT) professionals, an area in which SThree specialises. Gross profit from ICT placements slipped 8% to £26.9m from £30.5m in the corresponding quarter of 2011. Non-ICT gross profit shot up 27% to £24.4m from £19.7m the year before. Group sales headcount at 26th August 2012 was down 6% versus the year-end, and level y/y. UK sales headcount was down 16% versus year-end and down 17% y/y. Non-UK sales headcount was level versus year-end and up 10% y/y. Average sales headcount in the quarter was up 4% y/y. The permanent deal pipeline at the period end was broadly level y/y, as it was at the end of the second quarter, but was sequentially up 6% versus the second quarter period-end.

It is tough out there for recruitment agencies but SThree is still making headway around the world, except in the UK and Ireland, where profits took a dip. The group said that in its third quarter (Q3), which runs from May 27th to August 26th, group gross profit was up 6% on a constant currency (CC) basis to £51.3m from £50.2m in the corresponding period of last year. That growth rate represents a slow-down from 9% growth (on a CC basis) seen in the second quarter, and 15% growth in the first. Gross profit from Permanent placements edged up 2% to £25.6m from £26.0m the year before. Growth from this source remains on a steeply declining trend, as in the second quarter gross profit grew 12% year-on-year (y/y/) on a CC basis, which itself was a slow-down from 16% annual growth seen in the first quarter. Offsetting the slow-down in Permanent placings, the Contract side of the business grew gross profit by 10% to £25.6m from £24.3m the year before, an improvement on the 7% y/y improvement in the second quarter, but lower than the 13% growth seen in the first quarter. The split between Permanent and Contract profits is now 50/50, versus a 52/48 split in the fiscal third quarter of 2011.

Credit Agricole is in a rally of its own kind after US investment firm JP Morgan upgraded the stock from 'underweight' to 'neutral'. Like the rest of the financial sector, the French bank is also benefiting from the European Central Bank's bond purchase plan presented on Thursday. JP Morgan raised its price target for the stock from €5 to €5.50 thanks to its positive assessment of the sale of Greek subsidiary Emporiki. Shares of Credit Agricole climbed 8.44% on Thursday and opened on Friday with another 7.98% gain. The stock was leading the gains on the Cac40 and traded at €5.41 on Friday morning.

SSE has hailed a major milestone at its wind farm at Greater Gabbard in the Thames Estuary, as all 140 turbines have been commissioned. Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Limited (GGOWL), a 50-50 joint venture between SSE and German outfit RWE npower renewables, is now responsible for the operation for the day-to-day operation of the wind farm which, on a good day can churn out 500 megawatts (mw) of energy. The only cloud on the horizon for GGOWL seems to be the dispute with contractor Fluor, which rumbles on. GGOWL has taken issue with the quality of up to 52 of the upper foundations supporting turbines and up to 35 lower foundations supporting the same turbines, as it doubts the structures will last for the stipulated time as specified at the design stage. "The issues with regard to some of the turbine foundations are well-known, and we are continuing our effort to secure a satisfactory resolution to them through a process of arbitration. In the meantime, Greater Gabbard is now a substantial operating asset that is already contributing a significant amount of electricity to help meet the UK's low carbon energy objectives," said Jim Smith, Managing Director of Renewables at SSE. SSE's total net capacity for generating electricity at offshore wind farms, including Walney and turbines at Greater Gabbard which are not the subject of dispute, now exceeds 250mw; including the disputed turbines, it is now 340mw

Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) has reassured its investors that it remains committed to the redevelopment of a Nottingham shopping centre after a website claimed otherwise. Estates Gazette had said that CSC is shelving its plans for development of its Victoria Centre in of Nottingham city centre. However, the retail-focused real estate investment trust released a statement on Friday afternoon saying that these claims were "completely false". "As previously stated by CSC, the group continues to work with Nottingham City Council to determine the best way forward for the city and CSC's retail assets," the company said. CSC also owns Nottingham's other main shopping centre, the Broadmarsh centre, located less than a mile away from Victoria. "CSC considers that Nottingham represents one of the best city centre retail and leisure redevelopment opportunities in the UK."

Clearly it does not help that the US central bank seems wary about stimulating the flagging US economy with further monetary stimulus. But the chief reason to sell Ashtead's shares is because it's unlikely that their high-flying price can break away from United Rentals' for too long.....but as always dyor gl.......

More worrying is that in July United's bosses said that revenue in the second half would miss Wall Street's targets, although they still expected to beat forecasts for cash profits. Street analysts felt they released these new numbers, which had not been provided in the second-quarter trading update, to calm the markets. They did anything but. From the May's high point, United's share price has slumped 31 per cent. Ashtead, in stark contrast, saw its share price jump another 10 per cent after it reported strong first-quarter trading, with revenue up 21 per cent and underlying pre-tax profit rising 38 per cent to £61m. Chief executive Geoff Drabble says he expects full-year results to beat expectations. Management also increased capital spending in the first quarter to £223m, compared with £156m a year earlier, with the aim of spending about £450m on new plant for the whole year. Yet first-quarter results were more muted. Underlying pre-tax profits rose strongly, from £34m to £61m, but the reported figure saw profits up from £33.1m to just £34.9m after taking a £26.5m one-off hit related to refinancing.

Shares in rental specialists United Rentals and Ashtead, who hire everything from saws to bulldozers, have been glued together for the past three years (see chart) - not surprising as both their fortunes are closely tied to the US economy. But since May something significant has happened - their share prices have parted company. Ashtead reported record trading in its first quarter to the end of July, while United Rentals announced that second-half revenues would miss market expectations. As a result, United's shares sunk while Ashtead's hit record highs. Yet the worry is that the softer outlook for the second half, which has already hit United, also spells trouble for Ashtead. So, after a record run, it's time to take profits and sell Ashtead. Even though their headquarters are 3,500 miles apart, United Rentals and Ashtead are sector peers because Ashtead's US arm, Sunbelt, generated 84 per cent, or £945m, of 2011-12 group revenue. More significantly, all of the group's £181m operating profits came from the US. The UK arm, A-Plant, generated revenues of £189m and operating profits of just £7m. So, when the share prices of these two all-but-identical companies started diverging, as they did recently, it's significant. Sure, some of United Rentals' investors are selling because a $2.53bn deal to buy rival RSC, which closed in April, included taking on a whopping $2.3bn in debt. And if over $200m in cost savings fail to materialise, profits may unravel, too. But that deal was announced in December so investors have had plenty of opportunity to get out. Besides, initially it prompted the share price to rise over 60 per cent to $44 by May.

Vitec's shares trade on 12 times forecast earnings, which looks undemanding compared with industrial stocks and broadcast-equipment companies generating similar gross margins. It now has a focused portfolio of businesses with strong brand names in exciting niche markets..........but as always dyor gl all