Companies: CPU    EGS    PIX    ROK    UNG   

AIM analyst of the year Peter Ashworth has cast his eye over a broad array of small cap stocks this month, the smallest being digital photography software specialist Pixology at £12 million. After reducing losses and announcing a deal with popular supermarket chain Tesco, Ashworth highlights the fact that the group ‘has a strong balance sheet with £5.5 million of cash and net assets of £5.2 million, which is sufficient to see [it through to] profitability.’ The 60p shares are upgraded to a long term buy.

Corporate client Computerland is a ‘buy’, with its reported strong growth in managed services meaning it is confident that profits for the full year to April will be ahead of current market expectations. As a result, he has raised its pre-tax profit forecasts for 2006 by 20 per cent to £2.05 million (£1.7 million) and expects EPS to come in at 13.7p. Property services outfit Rok is another to back, says Ashworth, as it ‘has a confirmed order book of £330 million and long-term framework arrangements mainly for social housing totalling £1.1 billion, making the group the third largest player in the social housing sector’.

Elsewhere, analyst Ian Mitchell picks financial provider EG Solutions on the back of a strong maiden set of full year results, saying he believes the company ‘offers customers a compelling service and a clear return on investment, while the management team is driven to succeed (see Company Watch News, page 8). Conversely, Mitchell’s colleague Ben Archer has reduced forecasts at petrol forecourts payments processor Universe Group, but retains his accumulate rating with an eye on ‘a number of significant contracts in the pipeline’.