Dixons Carphone PLC (LON:DC) shares headed higher for the second day in a row after Numis upgraded the stock to ‘add’ from ‘hold’ on value grounds.
The Currys and PC World owner surged on Wednesday despite reporting a plunge in first-half profits, with investors encouraged by a more resilient tone and a solid outing from the electricals and white goods divisions.
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The Carphone Warehouse business is still a concern though, as more and more consumers hold off from upgrading their handsets, while many are also moving onto less profitable SIM only contracts.
Dixons said it would restructure this business to make it simpler and less capital intensive in a bid to react to changing consumer habits.
Despite the planned overhaul, Numis analyst Matthew Taylor still expects “profit attrition” in the mobiles division as the FTSE 250 company has had to invest in margins in order to hit its volume targets.
Still has strong market position
That said, Taylor thinks this will have a “diminishing effect” from 2019 though, with profits set to be re-based by the end of this financial year.
On top of that, the analyst says Carphone Warehouse still has a “strong market position” with a 22% overall share.
Even with the various issues, Taylor still believes that the current valuation is cheap, or “at least for more adventurous funds”.
On top of the rating upgrade, he also reckons the stock is worth 210p – almost 10% ahead of the 184.3p where the shares find themselves on Thursday.