AU daily stock ratings: Qube, Westpac, City Chic and more

$Qube Holdings Ltd (QUB.AU)$: RBC keeps an outperform rating and A$3.30 target price.
RBC Capital Markets agrees with Qube that an off-market tender process to buy back shares is the most appropriate option for capital returns at present. It is the most tax effective way for Qube to direct cash to shareholders and will benefit all investors, RBC says.

$ReadyTech Holdings Ltd (RDY.AU)$: Shaw & Partners retains a buy call on Readytech, while raising its price target to A$4.20/share, from A$4.15.
Shaw & Partners likes Readytech's acquisition of PhoenixHRIS, a cloud-based online recruitment applicant tracking vendor, and thinks "it will prove just as successful as Zambian has been."

$City Chic Collective Ltd (CCX.AU)$: Citi retains a buy call on City Chic.
U.S. plus-size retailer Torrid's growing store presence may be a competitive advantage over City Chic Collective, which is solely an online business. “However, we anticipate it may be less of an advantage in the future given our survey also revealed younger respondents indicated a higher preference to shop online compared to older respondents and the pandemic has accelerated a shift towards online," Citi says.

Banks: $Westpac Banking (WBK.US)$ remains Citi's top pick, ahead of $National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AU)$ and $ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ANZ.AU)$. It has a sell call on $CommBank (CBA.AU)$.
The Ukraine war has led to sharply rising commodities prices and accelerating inflation, prompting a shift among investors to a risk-off position and driving them to sell down global banks sharply. However, Citi notes Australian banks have surprisingly bucked this trend. "We believe this is due to Australia's commodities-dependent economy, an accelerating inflation and rates story as well as a strong capital adequacy and non-performing loan combination," Citi says.

$United Malt Group Ltd (UMG.AU)$: Jefferies retains a A$5.00/share price target on United Malt, which ended last week at A$3.96.
United Malt appears reasonably protected from the impact of grain and energy price inflation in the near term. "Longer term, if pricing remains elevated, customer contracts will need to be renegotiated if margins are to remain unaffected," Jefferies said.