Big Yellow Group PLC (LON:BYG) was upgraded to ‘hold’ from ‘reduce’ by Peel Hunt after the company delivered revenue growth against a challenging backdrop.
Analysts raised the target price to 1,150p from 970p as they expected COVID-19 to have an impact on self-storage revenues but so far this has not been the case.
READ: Big Yellow upgraded to ‘overweight’ by JP Morgan over self-storage sector prospects
The broker upgraded its earnings per share (EPS) forecast by 10% to 42.5p for financial year 2021 to reflect the better than expected trading in the first half and the increase in closing occupancy, which provides a strong base for the second half.
“Big Yellow has, however, seen a 6.6% increase in closing like for like occupancy from April 1 and 3.9% increase on the same time last year,” analysts commented.
“Occupancy is expected to be the main driver of year-on-year revenue growth in the second half.”
“Activity levels post period end also appear strong with move-ins up on the prior year and move-outs relatively unchanged.”
Shares were trading at 1,137.24p on Tuesday late morning, having recovered 63% from the March trough and only 5% down from January levels.