CommVault Systems shares rise following upgrade
CommVault rises as analyst upgrades shares, expecting more market share on Simpana 10 sales
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of CommVault Systems Inc. rose Tuesday after a Pacific Crest Securities analyst upgraded the information management software company's stock.
THE SPARK: Analyst Brent Bracelin upgraded the stock to "Outperform" from "Sector Perform" and set a target price of $92 per share. He said the company should be able to take a larger share of the data storage market.
He also raised his targets on EMC Corp. and NetApp Inc., and expects shares of each company to rise at least 20 percent.
THE BIG PICTURE: Bracelin said the data storage industry has been in a slump, as spending on storage systems and software slowed down in 2011 and 2012 and spending appears to be decreasing in 2013. He said sales could reach a low point this year, with a recovery starting in 2014. He said CommVault has small shares of the data protection and recovery and storage software markets, and could take bigger positions thanks to its new Simpana 10 data and information management software. The company released Simpana 10 in February.
The Oceanport, N.J., company said its revenue rose 22 percent to $496 million in its latest fiscal year and it expects growth of more than 10 percent in the current year, which ends March 31. FactSet says analysts expect $574.7 million in revenue on average, which implies growth of 16 percent.
SHARE ACTION: CommVault shares rose $1.91, or 2.5 percent, to $78.82 in late afternoon trading. The shares have climbed 67 percent over the last year and reached an all-time high of $88.14 on May 7. Bracelin's price target represents a 20-percent increase from Monday's closing price.
