KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 14): Prestariang Bhd rose as much as nine sen or 6% to RM1.52, on news of the company's cooperation with the government to manage data analysis courses in local universities.

The project under the Big Data Competency Centres (BDCC) initiative, has prompted analysts to raise their target price (TP) for Prestariang shares.

At 12.30pm, Prestariang settled at RM1.52, with some 1.8 million shares done. For comparison, the FBM KLCI fell 3.34 points or 0.2%.

CIMB Investment Bank Bhd analyst Nigel Foo said the research firm had raised its TP for Prestariang shares to RM2.94, from RM2.53 previously.  CIMB, however, maintained its “add” recommendation for the stock.

According Foo, the BDCC development in Prestariang came as a "positive surprise" to the investment fraternity.

Based on industry sources, Foo said the country’s demand for big data analytics specialists was expected to increase five times, from around 4,000 currently to 20,000 by 2020

“We have not assumed any earnings contribution from BDCC. Furthermore, we expect positive newsflow on a major long-term project with recurring income, that the company has been working on in 2014.

"If successful, this project would bring Prestariang to a higher level,” Foo said.

Prestariang will announce its third quarter results this Nov 26.