UPDATE: Imperial Capital Initiates NIC at Outperform on Multiple Positive Factors

In a report published Wednesday, Imperial Capital analyst Jeff Kessler initiated coverage on NIC EGOV with an Outperform rating and $20.00 price target.

In the report, Imperial Capital noted, “We are initiating coverage of NIC (eGOV) with an Outperform rating and a one-year price target of $20, about 11.54% above the recent share price. The company remains the pioneer and is a continually improving innovator for the government sectors. NIC processed more than 200mn transactions worth $22.5bn (+32% year-over-year [yoy]) on behalf of state and federal agency partners in 2012. NIC's self-funded business model, which provides gateways into legacy government systems, creates a true, customized, long-term, per-click relationship with the client. We believe NIC's model gives it significant competitive advantage over competitors that typically use a time-and-materials project-based pricing approach that is less customized for the client, therefore making it more challenging to develop long-term relationships.”

NIC closed on Tuesday at $17.93.