Haydale Graphene (LON:HAYD) is creating good momentum as it bids for commercial revenues, says broker Cantor Fitzgerald, which has upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'hold'.
The target price is also moved to 200p a share from 150p, which is a healthy distance from the current price of 138.5p.
The firm is not a manufacturer of graphene. Its main asset is its proprietary technology - a plasma reactor that ‘enables’ graphene and allows it to be applied within other materials.
Cantor analyst Richard Hickinbotham noted that the last year had seen "significant" technical and commercial progress with improved reactor performance and scale up, and the development of deeper commercial relationships both in the UK and in targeted overseas markets.
"To date, Haydale has provided samples and repeat samples to a significant and growing number of
customers. In total, we believe Haydale has had over 40 paying customers in the last 12 months.
"Combined with other validation by third parties, we believe there is sufficient justification for anticipating first commercial orders in the nearer term."
He added: "Consistent and reliable material is a pre-requisite for commercialisation and Haydale’s technology has been validated by third parties with impressive results."
Indeed, earlier this week, the company reported the potentially significant new collaboration with fellow AIM firm Versarien (LON:VRS).
Together the two groups want to develop solutions for the manufacture and functionalisation of graphene on a large scale for mass-production commercial applications.
Cantor forecasts revenue for 2015 to be £1.4mln with a pre-tax loss of £2.5mln, moving to revenues of £4.3mln in 2017 with a loss of £1mln.