Investing.com — Computacenter PLC (LON:) shares jumped 6.1% on Friday after the technology services provider reported first-quarter results that significantly exceeded expectations and raised its full-year outlook to “comfortably ahead” of market consensus.
The company delivered strong first-quarter performance, with Group Technology Sourcing revenue increasing substantially, primarily driven by hyperscale customers in North America and the UK. Group Services revenue also grew compared to the prior year, reflecting strong organic growth in Professional Services, particularly in North America, which offset a decline in Managed Services revenue.
North America continued its strong momentum and delivered an excellent first quarter, reflecting the record product order backlog position at the end of 2025 and stronger than expected hyperscale customer volume growth.
The UK also achieved excellent growth in Technology Sourcing, including AI-related project completions and further strong growth in Professional Services. Germany delivered a solid performance with good growth in Technology Sourcing, though Professional Services remained subdued.
The company now expects to deliver a much stronger performance in the first half of 2026 than previously anticipated. For the full year, management stated it anticipates delivering results “comfortably ahead of market expectations,” which analysts interpret as mid to high single-digit percentage outperformance. This would translate to approximately £310 million in profit before tax, representing roughly 6% upside from the consensus estimate of £291 million.
At the end of the quarter, the committed product order backlog across all regions remained strong, reflecting good order intake during the quarter. Some customers ordered IT products further in advance than usual to secure supply, given hardware component shortages currently affecting the IT industry.
“The combination of the strength of our integrated Technology Sourcing and Services model and our geographic diversity, gives us continued confidence in our long-term growth prospects,” the company stated.