Companies: STHR   

Landsbanki has upgraded shares in international staffer SThree on the strength of interim results to 1 June showing ‘a remarkably robust performance’. First-half financials from the company, which enjoys strong overseas sales and has a lengthy profits history, beat expectations.

Net fee income (NFI) and pre-tax profits increased 24 per cent to £102.5 million and £23.8 million respectively, and the interim dividend was lifted almost 30 per cent to 4p. ‘On valuation grounds,’ enthused analyst Ian Jermin, ‘and in light of the excellent first-half performance and the group’s natural resilience, we are lifting our recommendation from hold to buy.’

Engineering strength
Analyst David Phillips remains of the view that engineering group Keller is ‘deeply undervalued and offers significant value to the long-sighted investor’. A solid pre-close update flagged up strong first-half trading and suggested upcoming interims will show both sales and profits growth on what was a record 2007. Phillips is looking for 93.8p of earnings from pre-tax profits of £98.7 million for full-year 2008, placing the 653p shares, for which he set an 885p target, on a prospective multiple of seven times.

Last but not least, Kevin Ashton considers tech firm Kofax a buy in the light of a comforting update for the year to June. Kofax said software business revenues, total revenues and adjusted operating profits would match analysts’ expectations. ‘We imagine this will be a relief given there were some concerns about the company’s exposure to the financial services market,’ says Ashton.

SThree	LSE	£167.9m	137.75p	0.50p
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