Computacenter shares tumble amid drop in quarterly sales

Shares in Computacenter have plummeted as the IT services provider reported falling sales.

Overall group revenue for the third quarter dropped 3% to £900 million, compared with strong growth of 20% in the same period last year, but the firm said it remains confident of gaining further market share.

Shares in the FTSE 250 company plummeted by as much as 20% at the open, but had recovered slightly by mid-morning and were trading 17% lower at 1,044p.

But analysts remained confident in full-year forecasts.

George O’Connor, analyst at Stifel, said the volatile share price was due to investor nerves.

“We acknowledge that the uneven segmental results will cause nerves to twitch as the cautious are frightened off,” he said.

Most of the decline in revenues was accounted for by the UK and France, where sales dropped 9% and 6% respectively.

But German revenue was up 1%, while the international business grew by 13%.

The group said it remained on track to hit expectations for the year, and is set to benefit from demand for digital security, network capacity improvement and the Cloud.

In the first half, Computacenter revenues passed £2 billion for the first time, partly due to the rise in awareness of cyber attacks and the subsequent demand for cyber-security solutions.

Computacenter is also eyeing growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions.

In September, the group announced that it had acquired Misco Solutions, a Netherlands-based reseller and solutions provider.

Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter, said at the time that the company was interested in “acquisition opportunities which either enable us to enter new markets or enhance our services and solutions for our customers”.