Jefferies raised its price target on CAE Inc. to $34.00 from $30.00 and left the broker's rating at Hold. The revised target sits in close proximity to CAE's recent trading price of $33.44 and to the stock's 52-week high of $34.24.
According to InvestingPro data cited in the firm's review, CAE is trading near what the platform considers Fair Value, and the stock has delivered notable momentum, gaining more than 39% over the past year.
The adjustment in Jefferies' valuation followed a granular examination of foot traffic at CAE's U.S. training centers. Jefferies used this foot-traffic information as a proxy measure for simulator utilization across the company's broader network.
The dataset covers nine civil training facilities out of roughly 70 locations in CAE's network. Jefferies estimates that those nine facilities represent about 33% of the company's more than 350 full-flight simulators.
For the October-December three-month period, the civil sites in the sample reported traffic up 1% year-over-year. Jefferies interprets that result as consistent with simulator utilization of about 75% in fiscal third quarter 2026. That utilization rate aligns with Jefferies' existing forecasts but is down one percentage point from the prior-year period.
Using the center-level traffic as an input, Jefferies models a fiscal third quarter earnings per share of C$0.32, which is above the consensus estimate of C$0.30. The brokerage also projects 2% civil revenue growth for the quarter versus a 1% consensus, and it forecasts a 20.0% margin compared with a 19.3% consensus margin.
This update centers on operational signals derived from training-center activity and on Jefferies' resulting alignment of utilization, revenue, and margin expectations with its revised price target. The brokerage's Hold rating and the proximity of the target to current trading levels suggest a view that the stock is generally fairly valued under these assumptions.