Am holding onto Shares in Cookson at the moment. Has been a lot of movement in shares anyone holding aswell?? Any predictions or further info???

StockMarketWire.com
Citigroup has downgraded its recommendation on industrial materials supplier Cookson (LON:CKSN) to "neutral" from "buy" as the stock homed in on the brokers target price. The City broker has left its share price target unchanged at 650 pence. Broker Forecasts consensus data highlights that 41 per cent of brokers have a buy recommendation on the stock while the remainder are maintaining a neutral stance. Analyst Mark Fielding said: "We downgrade Cookson to neutral from buy. The upcoming demerger into Vesuvius and Alent may well create further valuation upside. However, the share is now trading close to our current target price for the combined group and we will re-assess our view on valuation for Vesuvius once the demerger of Alent is complete and the underlying valuation of the individual parts is more visible. Shares in Cookson have increased in value by over 10 per cent in the past month. "

UBS comment:
"Vesuvius generates over 50% of its revenues from global steel markets, where it provides lining and flow control refractories. It also serves the foundry markets and has a small Precious Metals operation. This note is essentially a continuation of our views from the old Cookson Group, from which Alent has now been demerged.
We think Vesuvius should be buoyed short term given improving US steel production rates and lower inventories in China. After a very tough September/October for Vesuvius there should be a sequential improvement in volumes. The addition of cost-cutting, 1,000 headcount has been removed, lowers the cost base by at least £30m p.a. Industrial lead indicators are broadly positive too and this all bodes well in our view for Vesuvius’ share price post-demerger. We see global steel production as relatively lacklustre relative to other demand drivers in the sector and we think this lowers the inherent organic growth Vesuvius can produce. We see emerging markets as a tough operating environment for Vesuvius, particularly given the existence of Sinoref in China. The specialist raw materials that Vesuvius uses also pose a risk given input price inflation. We think the combination of these factors means there is a cap on margin development. Under an EV/IC framework we think Cookson should trade on a c0.9x EV/IC multiple. This is consistent with our 315p price target and hence Neutral rating.

StockMarketWire.com
Cookson Group's scheme of arrangement for the proposed demerger of the performance materials division to Alent has now become effective

Cookson's shares have been cancelled and it has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vesuvius plc.

Investec comment:
"Demerger of the former Cookson Group on 19 December presents an opportunity to leave behind an unfortunate legacy. The group was a serial equity fund-raiser – to finance acquisitions or survival – and it had a record of value destruction. In spite of the undoubted cyclicality of its markets, we believe that Vesuvius can break with the past and be managed prudently to generate robust cash flows, underpinning a good and progressive dividend. We expect Vesuvius to be valued in much the same way as Cookson Group, on account of their business similarities and investors‟ concerns, which have always focused on the Ceramics business. On the basis of the stand-alone estimates in this report, we derive a PE-based target price of 346p."