Softcat PLC (LSE:SCT), the IT infrastructure reseller, saw its shares climb 6.4% to 1,224p after posting bumper first-half results and upgrading its full-year profit guidance, citing surging corporate demand for AI-ready infrastructure.
The FTSE 250 group's underlying operating profit of £93.8 million for the six months to January jumped 27.3% as gross invoiced income rose 33% to just over £2 billion.
Statutory revenue was up 54% to £837.5 million and operating profit 16% to £85.2 million.
Softcat now expects "high single-digit" underlying operating profit growth for the full year, up from "low single-digit" previously.
The company said demand was broad-based across all technology categories and customer groups, with its corporate segment performing particularly strongly.
Chief executive Graham Charlton said: "AI is reshaping customer priorities at pace, and organisations of all sizes are now prioritising the building of the data, infrastructure and security foundations needed to deploy it effectively and at scale.
"Given the breadth of our offering, these trends play directly to our strengths, with AI increasing customer demand across storage and compute, through the network and onto devices, as well as creating the need for greater security and governance."
He said the acquisition of Oakland has improved capability in data, automation and AI consulting, "enabling us to engage earlier in customers' transformation journeys".
Softcat cautioned that the second half faces a tougher comparison against a strong prior-year period, and that the net impact of ongoing memory chip shortages remains uncertain.
The group declared an interim dividend of 9.9p, up 11.2%, and said a £45 million share buyback programme was completed in February.
Broker Peel Hunt said all the key financials were ahead of expectations, and "especially impressive given half of the large deal that was expected in 1H has slipped into 2H".
"We believe this will lead to a 3% upgrade on consensus GP for the year (£536 million to £554 million), and a 5% upgrade on underlying operating profit (£186.5 million to £195 million)."