Computacenter (LSE:CCC) shares climbed 4.8% to 5,465p, reaching a fresh 52-week high of 5,500p during the session after Peel Hunt upgraded the technology group and significantly increased its price target.
The brokerage raised its recommendation on Computacenter to “buy” from “add” and lifted its target price to 6,000p from 4,400p, highlighting stronger confidence in the company’s earnings and spending outlook.
Peel Hunt said Computacenter’s half-year trading update showed that it had underestimated the scale of the company’s first-half earnings outperformance. However, the broker maintained its full-year adjusted pre-tax profit forecast at £324 million ($440.38 million).
Looking further ahead, Peel Hunt said “conviction is now for a materially higher spend in FY 27E for key customers, vs FY 26E.”
Nvidia results strengthen technology sector sentiment
Computacenter’s rally also came amid renewed enthusiasm across European technology stocks following Nvidia’s latest quarterly results.
Nvidia reported second-quarter revenue of $96.2 billion for the three months to July 26, representing growth of 106% from the previous year and comfortably exceeding analyst expectations.
Data centre revenue, which includes the hardware supporting artificial intelligence computing infrastructure, surged 117% to $89 billion.
Investors were particularly encouraged by Nvidia’s forward guidance. The semiconductor group expects third-quarter revenue of approximately $108 billion, ahead of the $104.2 billion consensus forecast, while gross margins are projected to remain around 74%.
Although the direct commercial read-across between Computacenter and Nvidia’s data centre operations is limited, the results reinforced confidence in the broader AI infrastructure investment cycle.
AI infrastructure demand adds to Computacenter momentum
The positive technology backdrop followed a cautious previous session for London equities. The FTSE 100 had closed 0.1% lower at 10,878.12 after stronger-than-expected US inflation figures tempered market sentiment ahead of Nvidia’s results.
The US PCE price index increased 3.7% year on year in July, slightly above the consensus forecast of 3.6%, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain a measured approach to monetary policy.
For Computacenter, however, the combination of Peel Hunt’s upgrade, Nvidia’s strong results and growing expectations for enterprise AI infrastructure spending provided a supportive backdrop for the shares.
Blue-chip status increases investor attention
Computacenter’s recent promotion to the FTSE 100 has also increased its visibility among investors at a time when companies are committing more resources to AI-ready computing and technology infrastructure.
As an enterprise technology infrastructure integrator, Computacenter is positioned to participate in corporate investment in areas including computing capacity, data centres and wider IT modernisation.
With the shares reaching a new 52-week high and Peel Hunt setting a substantially higher price target, investor sentiment towards the company has strengthened as expectations build for increased customer spending in FY27 and continued expansion of the global AI infrastructure market.
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