Analysts at Liberum Capital have upped their target price for wine retailer Majestic Wine PLC (LON:WINE) to 535p from 500p, citing a growth is exposure and its plan to boost customer growth spending.
The City broker said the group’s results for the 2018 financial year had confirmed progress had been made as well as being a “significant” surprise “ahead on FCF [free cash flow], EPS [earnings per share] and dividends”.
READ: Majestic Wine swings to profit in full-year results despite “challenging” retail climate
They added: “The group is increasingly well balanced with growing exposure to both online and international markets and we see the acceleration in customer growth spend as sensible capital allocation”.
Analysts also said that the firm’s retail arm has shown it could achieve sustainable growth despite a challenging UK market and some “significant FX and exogenous shocks”.
In its full-year results released on Thursday, Majestic swung to a profit but warned that a “challenging” UK retail market was likely to continue and possibly worsen through next year.
The AIM-listed wine seller reported a pre-tax profit of £8.3mln, up from a £1.5mln loss the year before, while revenues climbed to £476.1mln from £465.4mln previously.
In late-morning trading Thursday, Majestic Wine shares were up 1.7% at 458p.