Do you want to see a nice looking share price chart? Take a look at Sophos Group below. That’s a chart any investor relations professional would be more than happy to see. This time last year Sophos shares were trading in the 260-270 range. Now they are at 656. It has been a nice, smooth, progressive gain for Sophos stock in 2017 and to all intents and the Sophos share price forecast looks good for 2018 too.
Sophos share price forecast – 1000 in 2018?
Sophos Group is a provider of cloud-enabled end-user and network security solutions. It is global, and its products include Sophos Mobile and Control, software that delivers enhanced security for email, calendars and contacts. But the real story here is that it is a specialist in network security.
If there is one theme that is going to dominate the next few years in technology, it is cyber security. A week does not go by without hysterical headlines about the dangers of hacking. Who will companies turn to when the next computer virus spreads across networks? You’ve guessed it.
Looking at the buying and selling activity of Sophos insiders, there was some heavy purchasing of Sophos Group shares in Q4 2016, over £7.5 million of stock being acquired. Since then insiders have been progressively offloading shares, to the tune of around £3.6 million in 2017. There was virtually no selling in Q4 2017.
Brokers get on board as share price trends up in Q4
As for the Sophos share price forecast from the brokers: Credit Suisse restated an outperform rating in a 11 January research report. Jefferies Group started covering Sophos shares in November, and their first note issued was a buy rating. Numis Securities rated Sophos an ‘add’ back in September.
We’ve already seen some solid momentum, with Sophos trending higher, up over 17% in the last four weeks.
A growth stock? We think so. A recent EY global survey found that 55% of CIOs and IT leaders do not have, or have only an informal, threat intelligence program. There is an increasing awareness and acceptance that IT security is going to have to be a priority for big business globally. Sophos has the scale and the global reach to address those requirements.
We can’t see any reason short of a major corporate scandal for Sophos not to enjoy another good year. Can it repeat 2017? A good question. Our Sophos share price forecast would be the 1000 mark by the end of the year, on current progress.
