The long-awaited strategic review at UK banking group Barclays was welcomed by Investec (and the market) on Tuesday, with the broker maintaining its 'buy' rating for the stock.

The broker hailed the company's cost performance during the year, specifically the improvement in costs at Barclays Capital (BarCap).

Investec said Barclays is trading on 0.8 times tangible net asset value - broadly in line with RBS and at a discount to Lloyds (both rated 'sell') - which "appears to be a relative price anomaly given that we expect Barclays' stated return on equity to recover to c10% by 2014e".

Credit Suisse has raised its target price for shares of telecoms firm Vodafone from 170p to 180p and reiterated its 'outperform' rating for the stock.

The broker said that the investment case at Vodafone remains intact with VZW still standing out (which accounts for 55% of earnings). "In absolute terms, getting a lot more performance near term requires realising the value of the VZW stake. We continue to see this as a potential scenario for 2013."

JPMorgan Cazenove has initiated coverage of the European aerospace and defence sector, labelling power systems group Rolls-Royce (rated 'overweight') as the "best-quality company in the sector", the US broker said in its morning note to clients on Tuesday.

Analyst David Perry said that this view was based on the firm's organic growth prospects over the next four to five years, its "best-in-class" RoCE (return on capital employed) and relatively low risk profile.

BC

Related share prices
Barclays (BARC) share price
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) share price
Vodafone Group (VOD) share price