Peel Hunt upgrades Computacenter to 'buy', shares spark

(Sharecast News) - Peel Hunt upgraded Computacenter to 'buy' from 'add' on Thursday and hiked the price target to 6,000p from 4,400p as it said there was "more to come". The broker said that given the increasing focus on compute build-out and historical H1/H2weighting, it is lifting its FY 26 adjusted pre-tax profit forecast by 8% to £350m, versus consensus expectations of £337m.

Peel Hunt said expansionary comments from key customers over the summer, and improving monetisation, increase its conviction on a multi-year view.

"Hence, we increase adjusted EBIT forecasts for FY 27E by 10% to £394m (consensus: £364m) and FY 28E by 11% to £427m (consensus: £385m)," it said.

The broker said its conviction is now for a materially higher spend in FY 27E for key customers, versus FY 26.

"We are cognisant of the risks related to hyperscale visibility, but believe improving monetisation will re-enforce their spending targets," it said.

At 1426 BST, the shares were up 6.2% at 5,536p.