Ocado shares rally as Citi bumps up price target, reiterates 'buy'

Shares of grocery delivery company Ocado rallied on Friday as Citi upped its price target on the stock to 1,450p from 1,300p and reiterated its 'buy' rating.

"We reiterate our buy rating with our view that Ocado leads in a global online grocery market experiencing secular and structural growth," Citi said.

"Moreover the advent of the Ocado Zoom immediacy solution (less than one hour deliveries) significantly increases its addressable market, with the opportunity for greater automation (notably outbound robopicking) underpinning its long term economics," the bank added.

Citi said that Ocado Zoom, which is designed to deliver groceries to customers within a one-hour window, doubles the addressable market.

At 1255 BST, the shares were up 4.1% at 1,147.50, sitting at the top of the FTSE 100 index.