AstraZeneca, BAT and Centrica are all featured in Friday's Broker Tips as we look at the companies starting A, B and C - it should be easy!

The first up, British American Tobacco received a half year result slightly ahead of consensus with continued gains in revenue (+8 pct), operating profits (+14 pct) and EPS (+13 pct) where all regions continued to contribute except Russia and Romania according to Charles Stanley brokerage.

The four key Global Drive Brands which the company has instituted involves a push on Dunhill, Lucky Strike, Kent and Pall Mall.

However, RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland analysts are not convinced:

"Having performed well ahead of these numbers, we see no obvious near-term catalysts for the shares." they said placing a hold on these shares which have outperformed the FTSE 100 by 4 pct since June.

The company is owned 10 pct by BlackRock and Legal & General.

Next up, Centrica which has grown profits up 65 pct.

The owner of British Gas, Centrica said its profits were heavily weighed towards the first half of the year.

"As widely anticipated, CNA delivered a very strong financial and operational performance in H1. Earning were driven by the downstream business, but are higher across all segments of the Group." said Tina Cook, analyst at Charles Stanley Securities.

"Performance in N America is encouraging." she added.

Tina retains her buy rating after the acquisitions of Venture and British Energy, and newly commissioned Langage after providing a more balanced upstream/downstream business - 'better positioned for growth' with expectations of meeting consensus £21,428m revenue, £1,940m profit, 24.5p EPS.

Andrew Gibson at Galvan CFD's, offers a more aggressive view: "The greater the complaints regarding the cost to the consumer, the better the prospects for shareholders and bulls of the stock. Buy." he says.

Related news: EDF sells electricity network to Hong Kong tycoon

Finally, drug company AstraZeneca, who say their new drug 'Brilinta' is going to produce annual sales of more than a billion dollars after gaining FDA approval.

It further 'dodged a bullet' last month when a judge upheld their US patent on Crestor - a cholesterol lowering drug, giving it confidence to buyback shares of $2 billion.

The British Cardiovascular Society say Brilinta however is a new drug, but 'not a new concept' and unlikely to make a huge money in UK where pricing is always considered.

RBS say: "There are a number of near-term catalysts for AstraZeneca, the most important of which is the US FDA advisory committee meeting to approve of Brilinta (prevention of blood clots) on Wednesday...other catalysts include the full data set for dapagliflozin (their new diabetes drug) being available by the end of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in late September 2010."

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