Friday tips round-up; Schroders, Aggreko, Standard Chartered

The stock market may still be one fifth below its record high, but Schroders has surpassed its turn of the century peak. Yesterday's full-year results from the FTSE 100 fund manager revealed that its total assets under management had risen to £148bn.

The company's willingness to continue sitting on its huge cash pile (about £800m) remains a frustration, and makes the low dividend - held steady at 31p - look especially mean. But at £13.12, or 16 times 2010 earnings, this is a company coming into its own. Hold says the Times.

All the stars are seemingly aligned for the emergency power group Aggreko. Not only has the company recently made it into the top flight, having been promoted to the FTSE 100 last December, its full-year numbers, published yesterday, show that the group is going from strength to highly charged strength. The shares, though, already trade on a fairly spicy 2010 multiple of 16.3 times forecast earnings, so wait for the shares to soften a little before buying more. Hold says the Independent.

Shares in the Cheltenham-based engineer Spirax-Sarco - a world leader in equipment that uses steam to transfer heat - have risen by nearly one quarter over the past three months, taking its stock market value past the £1bn mark for the first time. Spirax has cash on its balance sheet and the potential for further profit upgrades. But at £13.50, or 15 times 2010 earnings, and a dividend yield of 2.7%, the shares have run far enough for now. Pass suggests the Times.

PartyGaming is a remarkably resilient beast given all the legal troubles it has been through and the way it has survived, and even thrived, after being kicked out of the world's biggest poker market - the US. Getting into bingo has proved a good idea (the business is storming) and weakness in poker appears to have stabilised, but there is too much uncertainty to justify the shares' rating. Avoid for now says the Independent.

It looks like the advertising market has finally turned a corner, bringing relief to ITV as its new chairman and soon-to-be chief executive plot the revival of its fortunes. However, However, the "platform for change" plan remains vague, with the obvious-sounding key aims of "sustaining broadcast performance, regenerating content capability, deploying across platforms and developing new regulatory consensus". The advertising gloom may be over for the moment, but bigger concerns remain for ITV. Avoid the shares says the Telegraph.

With the shares at £16.74, Standard Chartered trades on 12-times forecast earnings with a 4% prospective yield. Racy, for a bank. Management is cutting costs and driving more client growth out of the consumer bank. Bad debts are falling. There is more to come out of Standard Chartered, but be patient. Buy says the Telegraph.

Shareholders in Spirent may be tempted to hang up. Stock in the FTSE 250 maker of telecoms testing equipment has risen nearly threefold in the space of a year. With yesterday's above-forecast full-year figures providing a further fillip, Spirent now sits at an eight-year high. Profits are strongly geared to rising sales and a falling pound: 83 per cent of revenues come from America and Asia. It also sits on £108 million of cash. At 112p, or 15 times 2010 earnings, hold on says the Times.

AIM-listed producer Intandem Films failed to deliver a film in the first half, and revenues suffered accordingly. This should change by the end of the year, with potentially five ready, including Blown starring Samuel L Jackson. The group's numbers are moving in the right direction - it slashed pre-tax losses 71% to £179,000 in the first half, and has wiped out its £6m debt pile. Worth a punt. Buy says the Independent.


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