Canaccord ups target price on Travis Perkins following 'good start' to 2019

(Sharecast News) - Analysts at Canaccord Genuity upped their target price on builders' merchant Travis Perkins on Thursday, stating the firm's good start to the year justified its recent re-rating.Canaccord felt Travis Perkins' solid start to the year, helped by a weak comparative, which should also benefit trading throughout April, gave it reason to be "more confident" with its full-year forecasts for the group.The Canadian broker also said that it was "very reassuring" that markets had not fallen away on macro issues, so far, but did note that underlying markets remained "challenging with limited visibility"."Looking further out and over and above macro issues, we believe the investment case for Travis continues to rest more on the growth and margins achievable in the core trade businesses, and the timing and sales proceeds of plumbing and heating, and in all likelihood Wickes," said Canaccord.The analysts tweaked their estimates and, given the good start to the year, as well as the recent sector re-rating, they edged their price target up to 1,430p from 1,350p."However, unless good margin improvement is delivered in the core trade businesses and the non-core businesses are sold for a good price, valuation looks fair to us," Canaccord added.