WH Smith PLC’s (LON:SMWH) hint at the scaling up of its travel division has prompted an upgrade from analysts at Haitong.
Trading news yesterday was slightly more positive than expected, but the significant point, according to the broker, was the update on trading in travel.
“An upgrade in the Travel Division is very unusual to start with,”said Haitong.
Seasonality in Travel is to the second half and the comparatives are tough across the year.
“Upgrading suggests a high degree of confidence in sales delivery across the balance of the year in our view.”
Especially noteworthy is the network of international operations being established through tender wins and their maturity profile, adds the broker.
“In 2015/16 International went from 11% to 14% of travel division sales.”
Buy (from hold) is now the rating with a target price of 1,900p. Shares rose 24p to 1,608p.