02:45 PM EDT, 05/01/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We keep our 12-month target at $277 on a P/E of 24x our 2025 EPS view, higher than peers due to a flexible business model. We cut our 2024 EPS view by $0.25 to $10.15 and keep 2025's at $11.55. CDW posted Q1 EPS of $1.92 vs. $2.03, missing consensus by $0.23. Sales fell 5% to $4.9B, below expectations, on uneven end-market conditions, with Corporate and Small Business down 3% and 7%, respectively. The Public channel was weighed down by Education (-10%), Healthcare (-2%), and Government (-2%). Declines were primarily driven by reduced hardware spending and weaker economic conditions internationally, and were impacted by the federal budget stalemate, which led to a pause in the federal channel. Gross margin expanded 50 bps to 21.8% on higher mix in netted-down revenue. While we expect continued softness in enterprise IT in the near term, CDW should benefit from recovering PC demand in 2H 2024 (200 bps-300 bps market outperformance). CDW has manageable net leverage at 2.3x, and we project $1.2B of FCF in 2024.