Barclays upgrades GB Group after Acuant deal

Barclays upgraded GB Group to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ on Monday, hiking the price target to 1,000p from 865p following the company’s acquisition of US identity identification business Acuant.

"Following the deal, we have connected with competitors, customers and channel partners in an effort to contextualise the strategic rationale presented and have come away reassured," the bank said.

"The deal transitions GBG from low- to high-teens organic earnings growth, increases the likelihood of incremental margin expansion from operational leverage and improves the group's capability to enter new markets."

Barclays said this deserves a re-rating not the de-rating that has occurred. It added that the new price target implies more than 30% upside as it upgraded its outer year estimates following the acquisition.

"In our upside case we see organic earnings growth reaching the mid-20s per annum," it said.

At 1410 GMT, the shares were up 3.7% at 783p.