Seymour Pierce has downgraded its rating for B and Q owner Kingfisher from 'hold' to 'sell' and trimmed its target price from 290p to 240p following the group's first-half results which were significantly affected by the weather and foreign exchange losses.

"Despite downgrades in recent weeks, interim results to end of July are disappointing and at the bottom end of market expectations," said analyst Freddie George.

George added: "The stock has held up well over the last quarter despite a steady trickle of downgrades and on the basis of our revised forecasts is more than fairly valued. On the basis of our forecast it is valued at 12.0x FY13 earnings which we believe is too demanding giving the difficult outlook, with a prospective yield of 3.5%."

UBS has cut its recommendation for plumbing and heating products group Wolseley from 'buy' to 'neutral', saying that it is pausing for breath following a strong performance in 2012 so far.

"Following a strong run (+26% absolute year-to-date) and a significant re-rating we downgrade Wolseley to 'neutral' from 'buy'. We believe the fundamentals remain positive with a solid market share take story in the US (in addition to cyclical recovery, helped by an improving US housing market) and a very strong balance sheet allowing for cash returns, but we believe this is now priced in," UBS said on Wednesday morning.

Panmure Gordon has reiterated its positive view of house-builder Barratt Developments in spite of the negative market reaction to the firm's preliminary results on Wednesday, saying that there's still plenty of upside to the stock.

"Although Barratt has had a significant increase in its share price since the start of the year, we still see plenty to go for with the stock on a PNAV [price-to-NAV] rating of 0.74x. We therefore maintain our 'buy' recommendation and 190p target price."

BC

Related share prices
Kingfisher (KGF) share price
Barratt Developments (BDEV) share price
Wolseley (WOS) share price