Here is what expert analysts think about Softcat

City analysts understand the companies they cover better than anyone - so it can pay to take note of their trading recommendations. 'Buy', 'hold' and 'sell' ratings can be a useful signal when it comes to deciding whether to buy a share or not.

While it's fair to say that analysts can sometimes get things wrong, when you take the 'consensus' view of all the analysts that follow a company, it might give you a more reliable idea about what the future holds...

Take Softcat (LON:SCT) as an example. Shares in the company have risen by 7.60% over the past month and it’s currently trading at 1,373p. But what are the trading recommendations of the analysts that cover it?

Based on the broker 'consensus', there could be reasons to believe that the positive recent trend will continue. In terms of trading recommendations, Softcat currently has:

• 3 Buy recommendations

• 4 Hold recommendations

• 0 Sell recommendations

This suggests that analysts are generally upbeat about the outlook.

At its current price of 1,373p, shares in Softcat are trading at a discount of -38.6% to its 52 week high price. The 1-year performance of the shares has been -23.3%.

While analyst forecasts can be a useful guide to what City 'experts' think about a stock's near term future, they can be unreliable. To get a better idea about the strengths and weaknesses of Softcat it's worth doing some investigation yourself. Indeed, we've identified some areas of concern with Softcat that you can find out about here.