ERROR

The declaration of a special dividend is in stark contrast to construction material supplier CSR (ASX: CSR), which was forced to slash its full-year 2013 dividend from 13 cps to just 5.1 cps. USA-focussed James Hardie and NZ-focussed Fletcher Building (ASX: FBU) have certainly been the best performers compared with their domestic-focussed peers over the past 12 months, with their share prices both climbing around 45%. In contrast CSR, Boral (ASX: BLD) and Brickworks (ASX: BKW) have all performed in line with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) returning about 25%.

BA-Merrill Lynch rates as Upgrade to Buy, Medium Risk from Neutral (1) - Target $5.85 (was $5.60).

The Dow closed down 19 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P lost 0.1% to 1666 and the Nasdaq lost 0.1%.

UBS rates as Neutral (3) - The broker notes the company has bought Australian Truck and Auto Parts Group for $84m in cash, with UBS expecting the deal to close by the end of the month.

Two building supply companies’ share prices that have soared this past year are Fletcher Building (ASX: FBU) and James Hardie Industries (ASX: JHX), both up over 50%. Perhaps, it was their slightly higher dividends that appealed to investors, paying 4.3% and 3.7% respectively.

Citi rates as Buy (1) - The broker notes Australian Non-residential and Engineering work has fallen off sharply since late last year as have forward indicators.

UBS rates as Neutral (3) - Target $3.77 (was $3.67).

Broker Rating Order Company Old Rating New Rating Broker Upgrade 1 AUSDRILL LIMITED Neutral Buy CIMB Securities 2 BORAL LIMITED Sell Neutral JP Morgan 3 COCA-COLA AMATIL LIMITED Neutral Buy JP Morgan 4 DOWNER EDI LIMITED Neutral Buy Credit Suisse 5 FLETCHER BUILDING LIMITED Neutral Buy Credit Suisse 6 JB HI-FI LIMITED Neutral Buy CIMB Securities 7 SONIC HEALTHCARE LIMITED Neutral Buy Deutsche Bank Downgrade 8 ALUMINA LIMITED Neutral Sell JP Morgan 9 AP Eagers Limited Buy Neutral CIMB Securities 10 ARDENT LEISURE GROUP Buy Neutral CIMB Securities 11 BORAL LIMITED Buy Neutral BA-Merrill Lynch 12 CFS RETAIL PROPERTY TRUST Neutral Sell UBS 13 COCA-COLA AMATIL LIMITED Neutral Sell CIMB Securities 14 COCA-COLA AMATIL LIMITED Buy Sell BA-Merrill Lynch 15 DOWNER EDI LIMITED Buy Neutral Macquarie 16 ERM POWER LIMITED Buy Neutral Macquarie 17 FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED Neutral Sell JP Morgan 18 GUILDFORD COAL LIMITED (GUF) Buy Neutral UBS 19 INVOCARE LIMITED Buy Neutral JP Morgan 20 LYNAS CORPORATION LIMITED Buy Neutral JP Morgan 21 MACQUARIE ATLAS ROADS GROUP Buy Neutral Macquarie 22 NRW HOLDINGS LIMITED Buy Neutral Deutsche Bank 23 SEEK LIMITED Buy Sell Deutsche Bank 24 SEVEN GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED Buy Neutral Macquarie 25 SUPER RETAIL GROUP LIMITED Buy Sell CIMB Securities 26 WHK GROUP LIMITED Neutral Neutral UBS 27 WORLEYPARSONS LIMITED Neutral Sell Deutsche Bank   Recommendation Positive Change Covered by > 2 Brokers Order Symbol Previous Rating New Rating Change Recs 1 CLO 67.0% 100.0% 33.0% 3 2 JBH - 38.0% - 13.0% 25.0% 8 3 ALQ - 29.0% - 13.0% 16.0% 8 4 MQG 14.0% 29.0% 15.0% 7 5 ASL 29.0% 43.0% 14.0% 7 6 AZJ 50.0% 63.0% 13.0% 8 7 AGO 50.0% 63.0% 13.0% 8 8 ORI 75.0% 88.0% 13.0% 8 9 AIO 63.0% 75.0% 12.0% 8 10 FBU 13.0% 25.0% 12.0% 8 Negative Change Covered by > 2 Brokers Order Symbol Previous Rating New Rating Change Recs 1 SUL 14.0% - 43.0% - 57.0% 7 2 CCL 13.0% - 25.0% - 38.0% 8 3 ALS - 33.0% - 67.0% - 34.0% 3 4 SDM 67.0% 33.0% - 34.0% 3 5 SEK - 13.0% - 38.0% - 25.0% 8 6 LYC 50.0% 25.0% - 25.0% 4 7 NWH 67.0% 43.0% - 24.0% 7 8 SVW 80.0% 60.0% - 20.0% 5 9 AAD 40.0% 20.0% - 20.0% 5 10 GBG - 20.0% - 40.0% - 20.0% 5   Target Price Positive Change Covered by > 2 Brokers Order Symbol Previous Target New Target Change Recs 1 JBH 12.669 14.773 16.61% 8 2 MQG 36.880 41.437 12.36% 7 3 SUL 11.014 11.569 5.04% 7 4 ALQ 10.027 10.333 3.05% 8 5 AAD 1.520 1.562 2.76% 5 6 SHL 13.561 13.861 2.21% 8 7 CLO 1.373 1.403 2.18% 3 8 FXJ 0.586 0.598 2.05% 8 9 IPL 3.296 3.333 1.12% 8 10 AZJ 4.337 4.381 1.01% 8 Negative Change Covered by > 2 Brokers Order Symbol Previous Target New Target Change Recs 1 GBG 0.244 0.202 - 17.21% 5 2 SDM 1.170 0.970 - 17.09% 3 3 DML 1.125 0.933 - 17.07% 3 4 CCL 14.394 13.183 - 8.41% 8 5 LYC 0.798 0.735 - 7.89% 4 6 SVW 12.546 11.564 - 7.83% 5 7 ASL 2.650 2.464 - 7.02% 7 8 NWH 2.458 2.314 - 5.86% 7 9 ORI 27.651 26.680 - 3.51% 8 10 WOR 26.668 26.185 - 1.81% 8   Earning Forecast Positive Change Covered by > 2 Brokers Order Symbol Previous EF New EF Change Recs 1 FBU 34.978 37.105 6.08% 8 2 FLT 217.325 229.513 5.61% 8 3 MQG 297.400 309.429 4.04% 7 4 CTX 158.686 164.957 3.95% 7 5 JBH 112.710 116.900 3.72% 8 6 FXJ 7.038 7.200 2.30% 8 7 CLO 10.433 10.667 2.24% 3 8 WBC 219.738 223.750 1.83% 8 9 ILU 21.399 21.749 1.64% 8 10 MGR 10.777 10.920 1.33% 6 Negative Change Covered by > 2 Brokers Order Symbol Previous EF New EF Change Recs 1 MAH 1.200 - 0.050 - 104.17% 4 2 SGM 22.757 7.157 - 68.55% 7 3 BLD 14.766 11.368 - 23.01% 8 4 DLS 37.033 29.525 - 20.27% 4 5 AAX 37.620 31.400 - 16.53% 5 6 QAN  

UBS rates as Neutral (3) - UBS likes the investment in redeveloping Garden City, Queensland.

-NZ building heavily reliant on Christchurch -Oz building spurred by lowered cash rate -What balance can Fletcher Building find?