With another move higher today, the Nextdc Ltd (ASX: NXT) share price is within a whisker of its all-time high.
This latest gain means that its shares are up almost 69% since the turn of the year, vastly outperforming the market as a whole.
Is it too late to buy NEXTDC shares?
Although I don't think it is too late to invest, I wouldn't be expecting the same level of return over the next 12 months unfortunately.
At the current share price I think it is approaching fair value and has factored in a lot of future growth.
I'm not the only one to think this it seems. According to recent notes out of both UBS and Morgan Stanley, the two brokers have price targets of $6.30 and $6.50, respectively, on its shares.
This implies potential upside of between 2.5% and 5.7% over the next 12 months.
Why hold on?
Despite the strong gain it has made this year I intend to hold onto the data centre operator's shares for the long-term.
This is due to the insatiable demand for data centre services due to the incredible rise of cloud computing.
Just this morning NEXTDC advised that its new Sydney S2 facility, which is still under development, has already received orders for more than 5MW of capacity.
This means that almost all of the initial capacity available when it opens in the first-half of FY 2019 has been snapped up long before it opens.
Ultimately the S2 centre will expand to offer capacity of 30MW. Judging by the initial orders, I don't think it will take too long for this to fill up.
Overall, I believe this puts NEXTDC in a powerful position and one which should lead to bumper earnings growth over the next decade.
So while its shares may be close to fully valued now, there could be significant share price appreciation over the long-term.
As a result, I would put it up there with fellow tech shares Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) and Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) as one of the best buy and hold investment options on the market.
