Oil surge

Headlines say Stocks to fall as oil surges; and all stock picks this week are 74% BUY, 15% HOLD and 11% SELL.

1. BUY Ceres Power

Top performing stock pick this week is BUY Ceres Power Holdings by Goldman Sachs with a tip performance of 13%.

Ceres Power develops solid oxide technology for green energy. It also produces hydrogen.

Ceres Power share price launched at 909p in 2004, rose to an all-time high of 2,612p in 2007 and is today at 632p.

On 30th April Ceres announced that its manufacturing licensee Delta Electronics and strategic partner Centrica have formed an infrastructure partnership to deliver its technology, initially targeting data centres and energy intensive industries in the UK and Europe; Delta will manufacture the systems using Ceres’ technology while Centrica supports deployment, highlighting growing commercial momentum for Ceres’ SOFC platform but without disclosing financial terms in this RNS.

Goldman Sachs raised its target price from 530p to 670p, reiterating a BUY rating.

In Stockomendation three other analysts: Jefferies and Berenberg with BUY and Peel Hunt says SELL. Five open UK fund manager short positions, view those here.

2. BUY XP Power

Second top performing stock pick this week is BUY XP Power by Berenberg with a tip performance of 11%.

XP Power develops, manufactures, supplies and supports critical power control systems.

XP Power share price launched at 522p in 2000, rose to an all-time high of 5,590p in 2021 and is today at 1,808p.

On 23rd April the company announced its Q1 trading update in this RNS saying it delivered a strong start to the year with a sharp improvement in order intake across all regions and end markets, led by particularly strong demand from semiconductor equipment customers, while industrial and healthcare also made progress; revenue was slightly lower due to normal seasonality, the wind down of some export licences and temporary delivery disruption during the transfer of production from China to Vietnam, but the order book strengthened and visibility improved, the balance sheet remained stable, management confidence in full year expectations was unchanged, and the board reiterated its positive long term outlook despite ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Berenberg reiterated its BUY rating and upped its target price from 1,500p to 2,120p.

In Stockomendation three other analysts: Jefferies and Deutsche Bank with HOLD; Shore Capital says BUY. There are no UK fund manager short positions open.

3. SELL Bango

Third top performing stock pick this week is SELL Bango by Steve Moore in ShareProphets with a tip performance of 7%.

Bango is a software company that produces digital payment solutions, data and subscription bundling solutions.

Bango share price launched at 172p in 2005, rose to an all-time high of 274p twice – once in 2013 and again in 2017, and is today at 62p.

On 27th April the company issued its Full Year Results in this RNS reporting revenue lower than the prior year, with payments revenue declining year on year and subscriptions revenue increasing year on year; annual recurring revenue up with net revenue retention of 117%, while first quarter trading in the new financial year showed revenue growth and higher adjusted EBITDA compared with the same period last year.

In his article Steve Moore highlights the reduction in share price over the year as well as declining revenue and recommends SELL.

One other analyst in Stockomendation being Canaccord Genuity with BUY. There are no active UK fund manager short positions.

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Disclaimer: The contents of this article should not be considered financial advice. Pricing data correct as at 30th April 2026.