Greggs PLC

Analysts lifted their fair value estimate for Greggs from £17.77 to £18.74, with JPMorgan keeping an Overweight rating and raising its price target from £20.50 to £22.10. RBC Capital moved Greggs to Sector Perform from Outperform, citing harder-to-achieve cost savings after recent efficiency efforts and the stock's recent share rally, even as it lifted its price target from £18.30 to £19.60. The updated valuation assumes revenue growth of 6.62%, up from 6.46%, a profit margin of 5.73%, down from 5.76%, a future P/E multiple of 16.23x, up from 15.40x, and a discount rate of 9.46%, down from 9.51%.

The FTSE 100 set a new intraday record of 10,951.06 before closing up 0.3% at 10,908.41 on Wednesday, buoyed by strong earnings and rising oil prices. BP and Shell gained 3.4% and 2.8% respectively as Brent crude surged back above 90 dollars a barrel after President Trump vowed retaliation for an Iranian attack on US bases in Jordan. Among blue-chip stocks, Weir Group jumped 8.7% on robust first-half results, Sage Group rose 8.8% after an upbeat trading update, and Reckitt Benckiser added 4.3% as it announced a share buyback and reported second-quarter like-for-like sales growth of 4.7%, beating consensus. Standard Chartered climbed 2.9% after a record first-half performance and a 1 billion dollar buyback, while on the FTSE 250, Greggs soared 18% on half-year profit and sales that exceeded expectations. Attention now turns to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, with markets pricing a 34% chance of a hike amid limited forward guidance from new Fed chair Kevin Warsh.