The age of software in this country is changing, and changing rapidly. Investors used to think of large cap Silicon Valley giants Microsoft and Oracle as the go-to stocks for a portfolio. Now new companies are jumping into the forefront, and those are the companies Wall Street is starting to focus on.

In a new report, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey initiates coverage with a new analyst and five top, cutting-edge software stocks to buy. Well-respected on Wall Street for years, John Rizzuto has an impressive resume, and he starts coverage with five impressive companies rated Buy: Blackbaud Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB), Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), New Relic Inc. (NASDAQ: NEWR), Tableau Software Inc. (NASDAQ: DATA) and Qlik Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: QLIK).

Blackbaud

This company has been serving the nonprofit, charitable giving and education communities for more than 30 years, and it combines technology solutions and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works in over 60 countries to support more than 30,000 customers, including nonprofits, K through 12th grade private and higher education institutions, health care organizations, foundations and other charitable giving entities, and corporations. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud and on-premise solutions, as well as related services for organizations of all sizes. Blackbaud is clearly the leading application software company when it comes to the non-profit arena.

ALSO READ: Why Apple Should Have Inverted Its Dividend and Buyback Priorities

The company reported solid first-quarter numbers and may be one that is just out of the normal Wall Street view, as the stock is hardly covered at all. The nonprofit field is gigantic, and to be a leading player also helps in getting more business and retaining current accounts.

The SunTrust team initiates the stock with a $57 price target. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $52.33. The stock closed Friday at $51.34

Citrix Systems

This company is leading the transition to software-defining the workplace, uniting virtualization, mobility management, networking and software as a service (SaaS) solutions to enable new ways for businesses and people to work better. Citrix solutions power business mobility through secure, mobile workspaces that provide people with instant access to apps, desktops, data and communications on any device, over any network and cloud. With annual revenue in 2014 of $3.14 billion, Citrix solutions are in use at more than 330,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally.

The SunTrust team thinks Citrix remains a solid turnaround story. They also think that the newer business of providing networking and SaaS can drive earnings in the future. In fact, they see earnings power as high as $5.50 a share in five years. Another key is the new SunTrust analyst has covered the stock for 20 years, so he is very well versed with the story and the company.

The SunTrust initial price target for the stock is $77, and the consensus target is $67.53. The stock closed Friday at $66.94 per share.

ALSO READ: If Salesforce.com Is a Buyout Target, These 5 Stocks May Be Too

New Relic

New Relic is a software analytics company that makes sense of billions of data points about millions of applications in real time. New Relic’s comprehensive SaaS-based solution provides one powerful interface for Web and native mobile applications and consolidates the performance monitoring data for any chosen technology in your environment. More than 250,000 users and 11,000 paid business accounts trust New Relic to tap into the billions of real-time metrics from inside their production software and provide answers to their important business questions.

With yet another company that is underfollowed on Wall Street, the SunTrust team feels that the stock is undervalued versus the peers it competes with. They are also quick to point out this is a very early stage company that will not be free-cash-flow breakeven until 2019. The company had a reasonably hyped initial public offering back in December of 2014.

The SunTrust price is started at $41, and the consensus target is at $41.25. Shares closed Friday at $32.98.

ALSO READ: Security Software Stocks Still Red Hot as Threats Increase

Tableau Software

This has been a red-hot stock and is a top technology one added to the SunTrust buy list. The company provides business analytics software products in the United States and internationally. It offers Tableau Desktop, a self-service analytics environment that empowers people to access and analyze data independently, and Tableau Server, a business intelligence platform with data management, scalability and security to foster the sharing of data.

The SunTrust team seems sold on the company’s ability to sustain solid revenue growth, and they have a very positive opinion of the corporate management and strategy. They even point out that the company currently is taking share from every vendor. They are also quick to point out the company will face significant long-term challenges, while short-term growth prospects are better that the rest of the street believes.

The SunTrust price target is a very aggressive $140. The consensus price objective is $110.07. Shares ended the day Friday at $97.77.

Qlik Technologies

This company earns the top pick rating from the SunTrust team. It has generated a big buzz on Wall Street recently. The company’s QlikView Business Discovery platform lets people quickly bring data sources together to create dynamic visual applications that can be navigated and searched intuitively. QlikView uses Natural Analytics to reflect the way human curiosity searches and processes information, while delivering the enterprise manageability, governance and service offerings organizations require. The company’s products helped retailers during last year’s holiday season by providing them with timely and relevant information about inventory and stock, enabling purchasing managers to better anticipate demand and advise production teams.

Qlik Technologies was recently named the top “cross-industry” vendor in the KLAS Report, “Healthcare Analytics: Moving Toward the Continuum of Care,” for having the best understanding of health care analytics and for being considered one of the most important vendors to a customer’s organization in terms of their future business intelligence and analytic (BIA) plans.

The SunTrust analyst feels that company’s new Qlik Sense product will help push the company in the BIA market. They think the new platform can reinvigorate sales after being perceived as being late to the market.

The SunTrust price target is started at $43, and the consensus target is $37.86. Shares closed on Friday at $34.91.

ALSO READ: 4 Video Gaming Stocks to Buy With Massive Upside Potential

The bottom line is that these are a slew of “new” technology software companies, and they are the wave of the future as big data analytics is growing fast. The advantage for SunTrust clients is that Rizzuto is, plain and simple, one of the best in the business. These are very aggressive picks and only suitable for accounts with a high risk tolerance.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.