Liberum upgrades Pets at Home to 'buy', shares surge

Pets at Home rallied on Monday as Liberum upgraded its stance on the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and lifted the price target to 360p from 290p.

"We have rightly been holders since Jan’23 but now see several reasons to move to buy," it said.

"Yes, current trading is not great, but this should change as we move through the year."

Liberum said the new digital platform - "think Amazon, then think Prime and then overlay services (grooming + vets)" - is an immersive integrated platform that should lead to enhanced customer experience driving share of wallet, increase loyalty and frequency.

"The strength of the business and its cashflow profile more than underpins the current valuation and we move to buy as prospects for upgrades are now a lot clearer," it said.

At 1100 BST, the shares were up 6.1% at 314.20p.