Computacenter PLC (LSE:CCC) shares topped the FTSE 350 leaderboard on Thursday after the IT reseller posted a brief trading update that revealed a solid third quarter.
Trading in the year to date has been "comfortably ahead of last year", with Germany returning to growth in Q3, with indications towards the end of September of "the expected recovery in public sector activity in the fourth quarter".
The UK was said to have improved and North America maintained "strong momentum" with both enterprise and hyperscale customers, and France was soft, given the political turmoil.
By segment, tech sourcing revenues increased "strongly", driven by North America and the UK, with professional services increasing, driven by the same geographies, while managed services declined modestly.
The order book position was up since the half-year period and ahead of a year ago.
As a result, management has reiterated expectations for full-year EBIT to be ahead of last year.
Analysts at Jefferies said the statement "points to continued strong momentum and suggests the outlook for the year is increasingly de-risked".
"As momentum rebuilds we continue to believe that Computacenter's discount rating versus peers should close," they added.
"Reading between the lines," they said going from "comfortably ahead" at the Q3 stage to "ahead" at the full year stage allows for Q4 to be down year-on-year, with tough comparatives in the year ago, "so this is a prudent approach.
"But equally, we think this shows that forecasts for the year are increasingly de-risked."