Seymour Pierce has reduced its target price for supermarket giant Morrisons from 250p to 230p and retained its 'reduce' rating for the stock following a 'disappointing' Christmas.

"Despite soft comparables, Morrisons has had another difficult Christmas showing that management's more aggressive promotional strategy has not resonated with customers," said analyst Kate Calvert.

"We believe the food industry outlook will remain challenging in 2013/14 as inflation comes back and consumer budgets stay under pressure. Morrison is scale disadvantaged and will struggle to perform in this scenario."

Panmure Gordon has retained its 'hold' recommendation and 118p target price for department store group Debenhams after a 94.7% share-price jump last year.

The broker said: "Ahead of the Christmas trading statement, due Tuesday January 8th, we remain holders. However we warn that in view of the stock's performance, the slightest slip up here will be heavily punished."

UBS has downgraded its rating for precision tool maker Renishaw from 'buy' to 'neutral', saying that it foresees little upside given the stock's impressive 87% rise in 2012.

The broker said: "Having been the best performer in UK Capital Goods in 2012 we think Renishaw's shares may struggle to make further ground without clarity on its end-markets. We find judging momentum at Renishaw more difficult than normal."

BC

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