Cast a Wide Net

Headlines this week told investors to cast our net wide and all stocks picks this week were 80% BUY, 9% SELL and 11% HOLD.

1. BUY Hvivo

Top stock pick this week was BUY Hvivo by Ben McPoland in The Motley Fool with a tip performance of 8%.

McPoland has his money where his mouth is when it comes to Hvivo and owns shares in this contract human clinical trial company. Hvivo tests vaccines on humans. It listed at 6p in 2020, went up to 38p in 2021 and since Monday has enjoyed a 17.6% revival in its share price to 21p on announcement of a £7mn contract with an Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical company to test its antiviral starting in 2024.

Hvivo has a BUY rating from 2 tipsters in Stockomendation being Numis and Ben McPoland.

2. AVOID EKF

Big week for pharma with the second top stock pick AVOID EKF Diagnostics Holdings by Steve Moore in ShareProphets with a tip performance of 6%.

Things seem relatively stable for this pharma / diagnostics company if you look at the opening price of 33p back in 2002 and today at 31p without anything in between. The picture as always is much more exciting / volatile with EKF attracting attention for reaching a high of 81p not so long ago in 2021 only to go back to 41p not long after.

What makes Ben swim against the BUY rating of 4 other analysts in Stockomendation? Most news out there sees EKF as a ‘bargain’ urging investors to buy an undervalued stock. Ben, however, is not buying the hype so to speak and brings to light the termination of the CEO in the midst of peppy shareholder updates. Ben notes the market cap of £148mn quite out of keeping with projected earnings of £10m. We know research and exploration is expensive and risky. Like mining, pharma can have uncertain ends until, well, the end, and for Ben EKF is not adding up this week.

3. BUY The Gym Group

Third most interesting stock pick this week was BUY The Gym Group by Numis with a tip performance of 5%.

Things are looking up for this low-cost nationwide gym chain having enjoyed a recent resurgence and is enjoying life in the sun with founder John Treharne taking the helm with the departure of 7-year CEO Richard Darwin.

The Gym Group listed at 202p in 2015, enjoyed an all-time high of 334p in 2018, headed down to 95pm in 2020 in the COVID slump and is now at 142p.

Is it punching above its weight in terms of share price? Well 3 brokers Numis Jefferies and Barclays list it as BUY or OVERWEIGHT and only Steve Moore rates as AVOID in Stockomendation.

It is the cheapest in the land so if the cost of living and a future planned beach body bikini summer adds up, Numis’ prediction could come true.

Image credit: Brian Gratwicke

Forewarned is forearmed! As always you can see the the aggregated, performance monitored and ranked stock tips and picks data in Stockomendation.

UK Fund Manager Short Positions
See which UK Fund Managers are betting against your investments by accessing current & historical short positions on UK companies showing you which fund manager has shorted which company and by how much.

Join Now

CASH PRIZES ARE BACK!
Think you can pick stocks? Play the February's league UK Share Picking game FREE for your chance to win cash prices : uksharepickinggame.co.uk

Disclaimer: The contents of this article should not be considered financial advice. Pricing data correct as at 9th February 2023.