Softcat PLC provides information technology services. The company offers commodity sourcing, software licensing, e-procurement, unified communications and managed services.

Jefferies International today upgrades its investment rating on Softcat Plc (LON:SCT) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 565p (from 345p).

StockMarketWire.com
IT infrastructure company Softcat posted a 35% rise in annual profit as it grew its customer numbers and cross-sold more products to existing customers.

Pre-tax profit for the year through July rose to £68.1m, as revenue rose 30% to £1.08bn.

The company declared a final dividend of 8.8p per share, up 44% on-year, plus a special dividend of 15.1p per share, up 12% on-year.

Customer numbers rose 4.7% to 11.9k, while gross profit per customer grew 23% to £14.7k.

'We benefited from exceptional market conditions in 2018,' Softcat said.

'Despite current political and economic uncertainty, and notwithstanding tough comparative figures, we are confident of achieving further profitable growth in 2019.'

Trading in the first ten weeks of the new financial year had been 'encouraging', the company added.

1st quarter trading update tomorrow.

Since the annual results on 17 October the shares have been quite weak.

If trading has remained 'encouraging' as mentioned at that time then the shares could well be due a good run.