AMEC, the engineering and project management group which is due to release its full-year results this Thursday, has been labelled as a 'buy' by Seymour Pierce.

"The FY12 results from AMEC should contain few surprises and attention will be directed towards the outlook statement. With the company target of 100p/share of earnings by 2015 now likely to be reached earlier, the company is looking at double-digit earnings growth for each of the next two years. This will require the order book to be sustained at least the £3.3bn reported a year ago, if not the £3.6bn level achieved in June 2012," said Seymour analyst Kevin Lapwood.

He said that the "signs are good", with AMEC currently enjoying a strong run of activity in conventional oil and gas activity which accounts for 30% of the group.

"This is in part due to the current period of oil price stability but also to very strong growth in the Gulf of Mexico, where AMEC has benefited from not being a major presence in the region at the time of the Macondo disaster and its strong safety track record."

Meanwhile, he said that Brazil - where the company recently acquired a 50% stake in offshore engineering firm KROMAV - is also showing "very strong growth". AMEC should also continue to benefit from UK nuclear decommissioning activity, he said.

For the company's 2012 results, Seymour Pierce is forecasting profits of £327.5m (consensus estimate: £323.2m). In 2013, these are expected to rise to £378m (consensus: £360m).

Lapwood concluded: "The shares have underperformed the market by 4.3% in the last three months and by 8.4% in the last year. They now trade at a discount to the Oil Service and Engineering Service peers on 11.5 times FY13 earnings. We leave our current estimates unchanged at this stage but note there is possibly room to upgrade."

Shares were up 0.54% at 1,107p by 10:57 on Monday.

BC

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