The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Sept. 27, edition that National Bank Financial analyst John Shao rates The Descartes Systems Group "outperform" in new coverage, with a $125 share target (all figures U.S.). The Globe's David Leeder writes that analysts on average target the shares at $105.54. Mr. Shao sees Descartes as one of the leading consolidators in Canada, with a proven ability to acquire and integrate businesses to generate strong growth in revenue, profitability and free cash flow. Mr. Shao says in a note: "Over the past decade, the company has more than tripled its revenue and increased its adjusted EBITDA fivefold, resulting in a more than 800-per-cent increase in stock price. If anything, we believe Descartes has ticked all the boxes to be considered a high-quality roll-up name based on a set of criteria we developed in our previous research: solid base business with healthy organic growth; proven ability to acquire and integrate; high-quality management team and strong balance sheet offers lots of optionality. ... We do believe there is reasonable downside protection as the Company already built a recurring revenue stream with only 30 per cent of its revenue being transaction-based."