RC Fornax PLC (AIM:RCFX), the veteran-led defence consultancy, rose 16% to 8.4p in early Tuesday trading after the company reported £1.4 million of new orders and purchase order extensions during March, lifting its firm revenue visibility for the current financial year to more than £5.1 million.
Cavendish, the company's corporate broker, maintained its 'buy' rating and 50p target price on the stock.
It argued the order momentum makes the recent share price weakness look increasingly difficult to justify, given the company's exposure to a defence market where budgets are rising even as broader economic conditions deteriorate.
Cavendish analyst David Buxton said the March order intake, which included three new purchase orders, two new public sector opportunities and six extensions to existing contracts, extended a run of momentum that had already seen RC Fornax secure more purchase orders in the current quarter than it achieved across the whole of its 2025 financial year.
The broker said current visibility of £5.1 million compares favourably with its full-year revenue forecast of £5.8 million, with four months of the financial year still to run, and left its estimates unchanged.
Cavendish argued that the shares were trading at an unjustified discount given the company's improving commercial traction, describing the current price as a good entry point.
The broker's investment case rests on RC Fornax's positioning as a provider of outcome-based engineering and capability support to defence primes at a time when constrained budgets are driving clients toward more cost-effective solutions, a dynamic Cavendish said plays directly to the company's strengths.
Looking further ahead, Cavendish said the growing proportion of recurring, multi-year contracts in RC Fornax's order book gives the business a stronger platform from which to accelerate revenue growth in its 2027 financial year, for which the broker forecasts sales of £8.5 million.