Synnex Shares Jump, Bucking Market, After Upgrade

NEW YORK (AP) — A Raymond James analyst upgraded Synnex Corp. Monday, driving the stock to a record high while broader market indices slid.

In a note to investors Monday, analyst Brian Alexander boosted his rating on the business process services provider to "Strong Buy" from "Outperform," saying demand for information technology was gradually recovering in North America.

Alexander also boosted his per-share profit estimate for the year to $2.53 from a prior view of $2.49 and hiked his target price on the stock to $36 from $28. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $2.48 per share this year.

Synnex shares jumped $1.41, or 4.8 percent, to $30.83, after earlier hitting a record high at $31.33, even as the Dow Jones industrial average slid 1.7 percent and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 tumbled 2.1 percent.

Shares had traded between $8.63 and $30.66 in the past 12 months.

Alexander said that Synnex has managed to expand profit margins through the first half of its fiscal year despite what he termed the toughest demand environment in its history as a public company. A slowly improving macroeconomic environment should accelerate growth, even as profit margins increase, he said, due to the company's low costs.