Wednesday tips round-up: Topps Tiles, Albemarle & Bond, Hammerson

28th Sep 2011 06:34

In the good times, Topps Tiles saw as much as a quarter of sales coming from people moving house and upgrading the kitchen and bathroom. Today, the proportion is well below 10%, so it relies on discretionary purchases by existing home owners. Topps shares have now fallen to a level where, after yesterday's 6.5% jump to 31½p, they are selling on a bit more than six times' earnings for this year and next. With no reason why trading should recover yet, that still does not suggest a purchase, says the Times.Albemarle & Bond, one of two quoted pawnbrokers, is having no trouble finding sites to meet its targets of doubling the number of its stores to about 300 from 2010 to 2015 because there as so many dead secondary retail outlets available. The shares sell on a little less than 11 times' this year's earnings and look like one of the few bright spots in the bombed-out smaller retailers sector, sad to say, the Times says.Hammerson, the operator of retail and office space in the UK and France, was espousing an upbeat view on the retail sector on an analyst trip to its retail assets in Reading, Didcot and Gloucester at the start of this week. Hammerson's shares now trade at a 31% discount to Panmure Gordon's net asset value forecast of 532p for 2011. It also offers a prospective yield of 4.5%. The Independent says buy.What the Independent really liked about yesterday's numbers from fizzy drink maker AG Barr was the 25% fall in the company's debt, together with its pension fund moving into a small surplus. As such, AG Barr's balance sheet looks strong. Having fallen with the market in August, the shares have bounced back strongly. They trade on a rather fizzy 17.6 times full-year earnings, a chunky 20% premium to the food-and-drink sector. All the same, we'd hold, the paper says.Diploma distributes electronic products. It gets about 80% of its revenues from the aftermarket, replacing equipment that has failed, rather than relying on new products that may not actually be made. At 313p, the shares sell on about 11½ times earnings and look like a good defensive hold, says the Times.You have probably read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or at least heard of it. You may not, however, have heard of Quercus, the publisher with rights to Stieg Larsson's books across the English-speaking world. The group took the work of a dead author and helped to turn it into a global phenomenon. It is on such things that publishing empires are built - just ask Bloomsbury about a certain wizard. Management is suitably cautious and the release of the US version of Dragon Tattoo should reinvigorate sales, the Independent says. Supermarket Tesco's current year earnings multiple is 10.7, falling to 9.6 and the prospective yield is a respectable 4.1% rising to 4.5% in the year to February 2013. The international strategy should provide strong future growth. Buy, the Telegraph says.Fear makes people do irrational things - and last week's sell-off of shares in Weir Group looks pretty irrational. The shares slumped by almost 17% last week - the worst performance in the sector. The reason for the fall is that the pump and engineering group has significant exposure to mining capital expenditure, as well as the oil and gas space. The shares are trading on a December 2011 earnings multiple of 13.1, falling to 11.6 next year. The prospective yield is 1.9%, but this is a story about growth. Buy, the Telegraph says.---RGPlease 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.