Tuesday tips round-up: Wood Group, Travis Perkins, YouGov...

Wood Group, the oil and gas services company, would have looked pretty good even without yesterday's confirmation of a $152m (£95.4m) contract with GWF Energy to build and commission the conversion of a gas turbine plant in California to combined cycle. There is still headroom with the shares trading on a forward multiple of 14.9 times next year's earnings, which is by no means demanding. Buy says the Independent.Since August, Wood shares have run away from the rest of the sector as fears over the oil industry have subsided. Perhaps time to take some profits says the Times.Travis Perkins is a good bellwether for building activity generally, drawing about 80% of its business from general merchanting and the rest from retail, mainly the Wickes chain. The shares have done precious little this summer and are now selling on just short of 12 times' this year's earnings. They remain a long-term hold says the Times.Travis Perkins has an ace up its sleeve: its planned acquisition of BSS. The deal will give birth to the country's biggest plumbing and heating trade and retail distribution business, putting it ahead of Wolseley. That should strengthen Travis's position in the market and drive renewed interest in its shares, but the Office of Fair Trading has called for more time to examine the deal. Hold for now says the Independent.YouGov was always meant to do well out of a general election amid the clamour for polling data. But this year it lost its chief executive Nadhim Zahawi, who decided to have a go at real politics rather than polling, and won Stratford-upon-Avon for the Tories. At a price of 21.7 times estimated results for the year to the end of July 2011, the stock is expensive, though. Things may be getting better and YouGov claims to have fixed a number of its problems, but hold for now says the Independent.It is fairly obvious that the attempt to place Harbinger's entire 28% stake in satellite group Inmarsat was badly botched; the market somehow got wind and the shares fell to below a level that the fund could contemplate selling the lot. Inmarsat is throwing off cash at an alarming rate, £700m expected this year. The shares are on about 17 times' next year's earnings, expensive, but in line with prospects. Hold, but buy on further weakness, says the Times. Please note: Digital Look provides a round-up of news, tips and information that is impacting share prices and the market. Digital Look cannot take any responsibility for information provided by third parties. This is for your general information only as not intended to be relied upon by users in making an investment decision or any other decision. Please obtain a copy of the relevant publication and carry out your own research before considering acting on any of this information.