Broker tips: BT, B&M, Wickes, Currys, Dunelm

(Sharecast News) - Analysts at Berenberg hiked their target price on telecommunications giant BT Group from £2.50 per share to £3 on Friday, after the firm reported that trends in its consumer business had improved in the fourth quarter of its trading year. Berenberg noted that BT had seen service revenue grow by 1.6%, the first quarter of growth seen this year, while subscriber growth was said to be strong on most fronts during the year, excluding-postpaid mobile in Q4, while churn was low and average revenue per user trends recovered.

The German bank, which said Openreach remained the key driver of BT's numbers, also highhlighted that underlying earnings were "flattered" by the comparison to a weak Q425, but said revenue growth was "solid" as ARPU growth offset line losses to the alternative carriers.

"Broadband line losses look set to continue for three years on our forecasts, albeit at a slowing rate, but ARPU growth of more than 4% in Q4 suggests to us that Openreach is not having to work quite as hard as we had feared to combat the alts' threat," said Berenberg, which has a 'buy' rating on the stock.

"We still include a return to cost-based access price regulation post-2031 in our forecasts. However, deregulation is looking increasingly likely, in our view (we watch for any indication that Openreach will be allowed to launch geographical discounts in selected areas in time), and we now include a 50% probability of this upside scenario (GBP3.50-plus) in our price target."

Deutsche Bank downgraded a host of UK retailers on Friday, saying the biggest debate right now was whether we were in the "calm before the storm" with regards to the inflationary impact on consumer spending and retailer margins or whether it was just a "storm in a teacup".

The German bank said in a research note that "we may be at the trough of negative news flow".

"Consumer confidence has sequentially weakened from March, retail spending slowed in April and other than petrol pump prices inflation is yet to step up," it said. "However, this is not 2022 and retailers are better hedged on energy costs, supply chain disruption is limited, freight costs look manageable and the consumer shock appears less palpable."

Deutsche Bank downgraded B&M European Value Retail and Wickes to 'sell' from 'hold' and Currys and Dunelm to 'hold' from 'buy'.

The price targets for B&M and Wickes were cut to 155p from 175p and to 165p from 235p, respectively. Deutsche trimmed its price target for Currys to 150p from 155p, while the Dunelm target price was slashed to 850p from 1,200p.