Berenberg raises target price on Draper Esprit

Analysts at Berenberg raised their target price on software firm Draper Esprit from 1,000.0p to 1,200.0p on Wednesday, stating the group was "continuing to move in the right direction".

Berenberg said Draper Esprit, which it selected as a top pick for 2021, had "not disappointed" thus far, yielding a return of 65% year-to-date and outperforming the FTSE 250 by 53% and the US and European tech indices by around 45% and 37%, respectively.

The German bank also highlighted that since June, markets had pushed on as valuations continue to expand in the technology sector, noting that this, combined with some new investment updates, gives it confidence that the company will outperform prior estimates with more capital deployed and the company achieving higher uplifts to its portfolio fair value.

"At this stage, we make no changes to realisations particularly as there is no obvious candidate for a short-term initial public offering and or trade sale," said Berenberg, which reiterated its 'buy' rating on the stock.

"At the group level, our net asset value per share estimates move up by 2-3% and we raise our price target to 1,200.0p to reflect a slight expansion in TMT multiples globally to circa 6.3x enterprise value/sales."