Private UK postal delivery group Royal Mail PLC (LON: RMG) saw shares deliver a 2.21% drop on Friday as RBC Capital put out a note.
The firm will need to raise its full year dividend well above market forecasts to support the current share price, the broker said.
It downgraded the stock to 'underperform' from 'sector perform' yet raised its target price to 500p from 465p.
The broker said the postal operator's shares trade at a premium to income peers, requiring a 20-25% beat on the full year dividend per share (DPS) consensus forecast to justify the price.
Upbeat broker comments sent shares in turnaround specialist Melrose Industries plc (LON: MRO) and Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC (LON: ULE) higher in London at the end of the week.
Melrose, whose takeover of engineer GKN (LON: GKN) was approved by shareholders last month, was the recipient of a Goldman Sachs note, in which the heavyweight investment bank said it was adding the 'buy' rated stock to the 'conviction buy' list. GKN shares added 2.82% to 451.80p
"We believe that Melrose is fundamentally undervalued and that its share price materially underestimates potential future value creation," said analyst Jack OBrien.
He reckons GKN could be around 40-60% earnings accretive to Melrose under a range of GKN margin scenarios by 2020.
The Goldman price target of 320p ascribes 200p of value to Melrose's incumbent assets and 120p to inorganic growth opportunities, it said.
"This represents c.50% upside from the current share price and was founded upon a range of acquisition and margin expansion scenarios," the broker said.
Shares in Melrose added 2.85% to 224.10p.
Meanwhile, Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC (LON:ULE) shares jumped over 6% to 1,434.99p as German bank Berenberg upgraded its rating to 'hold' from 'sell' and increased its price target to 1,440p from 1,300p.
It said the market had now digested Ultra's November 2017 profit warning, the departure of the CEO and termination of the planned acquisition of Sparton Corp.
They concluded: "We are cautiously optimistic that Ultra can deliver organic growth in the medium to long-term, driven by increasing global defence spending as well as other large multi-year contract opportunities identified by management that could bring substantial revenues over the medium to longer term."
Lionsgold Limited (LON:LION) was a notable share riser in mid-morning with shares advancing over 14% to 2.62p after it made an offer to acquire all of the Goldbloc digital currency .
The company currently owns 55% of Goldbloc owner TRAC Technology and it has now made a ?1.35mln share-for-share offer to the remaining shareholders.
It would see the consideration shares paid to TRAC shareholders priced at 2.3271p each, giving the business a valuation of ?3mln.
"The Goldbloc mobile phone banking application is on schedule for release in the UK this quarter. The board considers the full buy-out of TRAC to be strategically and operationally important." it said in a statement.
Another share riser in London was Far East Russia-focused Amur Mineral Corp (LON:AMC), which announced the completion and the full restock and mobilization of all machinery, spares and supplies for the 2018 field season at its Kun-Manie project.
Amur said this year's field season will be focused on gathering information for inclusion in project engineering study work and operational design for consideration and the incorporation into necessary documentation related to project financing.
On the downside, DekelOil Public Limited (LON: DKL) shares slumped over 10% after it revealed a 17% drop in crude palm oil production and a 25% reduction in sales prices.
The Ivory Coast-based palm oil producer told investors it has continued to see a deviation from typical seasonal trends, and it suggested the 'high season' may be less volatile and may last longer for 2018.
First quarter production volumes were softer than the same period of 2017, following a preceding quarter that was significantly stronger than its year-on-year comparison.
Among the top risers in London in early deals was tech group Crimson Tide plc (LON:TIDE), with a market cap of just over ?10mln, whose shares surged over 12%.
It came after seemingly upbeat comments in its earnings report for 2017, in which the chairman Barrie Whip said profits would have almost doubled if the firm had stuck to its previous strategy and not invested in future expansion.
But it decided to invest ?350,000 in new staff and marketing, which it says make it ripe for a big expansion.
The firm provides cloud-hosted mpro5, which enables organisations to transform their workforce by smart mobile working.
Pre-tax profit for the year came in at ?359,000 versus ?352,000 last year on revenue of ?2.28mln, 22% higher than the ?1.86mln seen in 2016.
On the losing front, software focused Sage Group (LON:SGE) tanked over 17% to 556p as it slashed its full year guidance after first half organic revenue missed the firm's forecasts.
The group said the figure was hit by slippages in some enterprise licence contracts in the US and the Middle East, though it expects a recovery in the second half.
"Growth in H1 18 was lower than our expectations as the pace of execution has been slower than we planned," said chief executive Stephen Kelly.
Software subscriptions organic revenue rose 25.3% compared to a 30.6% jump in the year-ago.
The company lowered its organic revenue forecast for the year to 7% from 8% but left its estimate for organic operating margin at 27.5%.
ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR) said it has seen positive geochemical results and has begun a drilling programme at the Bung Bong gold prospect at its Avoca tenement in Victoria. The AIM-listed gold miner said geochemical results and geological observations at Bung Bong indicated several fault-related quartz and quartz spurs to test as potential high-volume targets for gold mineralisation at the surface.
Echo Energy Plc (LON:ECHO) told investors that it has successfully brought gas to surface following the well workover of a three well programme at the Fracci??n D asset, onshore Argentina. The existing well, tagged CSo-85, perforated a previously untapped gas reservoir which flowed to surface without any further intervention. Gas flows from the reservoir are estimated at 2mln cubic feet per day.
PowerHouse Energy Group PLC (LON:PHE) has received details of the planned roll-out of its hydrogen-from-waste technology from partner Waste2Tricity. Using Powerhouse's DMG-Core system at its heart, Waste2Tricity will target 100 installations in the UK and even more in Europe.
Live Company Group Plc (LON:LVCG) has raised ?350,000 from an existing institutional investor to support its new BRICKLIVE Touring division.
Energy metals group Savannah Resources Plc (LON: SAV) is set for a busy year, as it fast-tracks its Mina do Barroso lithium project in Portugal into production. "There is an unprecedented rise in demand for energy metals because of the rapid rise of electric vehicles and new forms of energy storage," David Archer, the group's chief executive, told investors in the company's results.
Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) has announced the completion and the full restock and mobilisation of all machinery, spares and supplies for the 2018 field season on its Kun-Manie project in the Far East of Russia.