Darktrace shares surge amid booming demand for cyber security services

DARKTRACE shares surged 25pc after it said it will beat forecasts amid a boom in demand for cyber security services.

Annual turnover is set to rocket by between 42pc and 44pc as companies race to protect their IT networks.

Darktrace’s previous estimate was of a 37pc to 39pc rise. Profits are also set to grow at the group co-founded in 2013 by controversial software tycoon Mike Lynch, who owns 17.5pc along with his wife Angela Bacares.

Lynch is fighting extradition to the US over fraud charges relating to selling IT firm Autonomy to HP for £7bn in 2011.

A growing number of businesses, governments and international organisations are falling prey to cyber attacks.

Around two in five UK businesses were targeted in the year to March 2021, according to official figures.

Cambridge-based Darktrace uses artificial intelligence to teach machines how a company’s security works, which allows them to test how robust it is.

The company said revenues in the six months to December soared 50pc to £140m, and its customer base rose by more than a third to 6,531. Its shares rose 25pc early on, and ended up 6.9pc, or 27.2p, higher at 422p. It floated last year at 250p, but has languished since October, when Peel Hunt analysts told investors to sell their stock and a lockup period ended on the shares. Darktrace boss Poppy Gustafsson (pictured) hit back, saying it has been misunderstood by the market. Yesterday, Peel Hunt brokers, who thought it overvalued, upgraded the stock’s status to ‘hold’, keeping a target price of 473p.

Berenberg analysts, who have a ‘buy’ rating, said Darktrace had ‘clearly been caught in a web of misinformation, which we think today’s update will serve to break’.