As incredible as it seems, we have less than three full months left in 2016, and if the markets can hang in there we probably will post a mid to high single-digit gain for the year. Needless to say, the biggest issue overhanging the market will be the U.S. presidential election, now just a month away. The market doesn’t like uncertainty, and it’s looking like this election could go either way.
One sector that should continue to benefit from strong momentum is technology, and some of the companies that have been in sub-sectors that got knocked down, or have had a headline event, might be outstanding buys now. A series of new research reports from Stifel highlight four companies rated Buy that make very good sense for aggressive accounts now.
Commvault Systems
This stock has been on fire, and the analysts think it goes even higher. Commvault Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CVLT) is a leading provider of data protection and information management solutions, helping companies worldwide activate their data to drive more value and business insight and to transform modern data environments. With solutions and services delivered directly and through a worldwide network of partners and service providers, Commvault solutions comprise one of the industry’s leading portfolios in data protection and recovery, cloud, virtualization, archive, file sync and share.
The company’s exclusive single-platform architecture gives companies unprecedented control over data growth, costs and risk. Commvault’s Simpana software suite of products was designed to work together seamlessly from the ground up, sharing a single code and common function set, to deliver superlative data protection, archive, replication, search and resource management capabilities.
Stifel sees that company well positioned for what it calls “architectural shifts” in enterprise storage. The research report said this:
Commvault remains one of our top picks – driven by a positive view on fundamental upside (top/bottom-line – revenue growth into mid-teens w/ progression toward 20%+ EBIT%) and valuation re-rate. Despite strong performance in shares – +30% over past 3-months vs. S&P +3.5%; trading at 2+ year highs – we remain positive on the re-rate potential given Commvault’s positioning for hybrid cloud data mgmt and overall deepening strategic value.
The Stifel price target for the stock was raised to $68. The Wall Street consensus target is $57.36. Shares opened Friday at $55.76.
Lam Research
This company remains one of the top chip equipment picks across Wall Street. Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers plasma etch products that remove materials from the wafer to create the features and patterns of a device.
Many Wall Street analysts have highlighted the company and its peers as having a significant equipment opportunity from the NAND evolution as well. Lam Research also appears well positioned to gain share in the wafer fab equipment (WFE) market, driven by a strong focus on technology inflection spending over the next few years.
Despite so-so foundry and logic spending in the past year, many on Wall Street think that Lam Research also will continue to benefit from technology transitions such as FinFET, 3D NAND, multi patterning and advanced packaging in 2015 and beyond. Many analysts believe it is the “cleanest” semi cap story benefiting from cyclical tailwind, SAM expansion and share gains.
The company recently made the decision to terminate its deal to acquire KLA-Tencor when it became clear that regulators probably would not approve the deal in the United States, and it was looking troublesome in other areas of the world. The companies walk away with no break-up fee imposed, and Stifel feels that Lam will continue to excel on its own.
Shareholders receive a 1.3% dividend. The $102 Stifel price target compares with the consensus posted at $101.39 and the $99.75 share price Friday morning.
Palo Alto Networks
This company was a momentum trader’s dream before crashing back to earth. Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) is helping to lead a new era in cybersecurity by protecting thousands of enterprise, government and service provider networks from cyber-threats.
Unlike fragmented legacy products, the Palo Alto Networks security platform safely enables business operations and delivers protection based on what matters most in today’s dynamic computing environments: applications, users and content. The platform has new features that were introduced to help security professionals overcome the distractions and time spent on problems caused by the overwhelming volume of alerts and manual processes associated with operating many discrete security products, and, instead, expand breach prevention capabilities and boost operational efficiency.
The company continues to be ranked the highest with the Wildfire product, which has been the favorite in the advanced persistent threat space among the value added resellers who carry and sell the product. Toss in solid upside in billing potential for 2016 and 2017, and the story is a killer going forward. Many analysts on Wall Street have made it clear that the feedback they get from the professionals at security conferences is the most bullish on Palo Alto, and the company is gaining real traction with larger data centers’ firewalls.
The company reported inline results last month, but missed other key metrics due to increased sales and marketing expenses. Stifel noted this in the report after visiting with some of the company’s top executives recently:
We continue to see Palo Alto as a key beneficiary of the push to consolidation within the enterprise and are increasingly optimistic surrounding the prospects for emerging solutions like Traps (endpoint security) and the VM-Series (public/private cloud deployments).
Stifel has a big $210 price target. The consensus target is $180.66, and the stock traded early Friday at $160.15.
Salesforce.com
Though this top company reported choppy second-quarter numbers, the stock took a hit. Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) provides enterprise cloud computing solutions, with a focus on customer relationship management to various businesses and industries worldwide. It offers enterprise cloud computing applications and platform services, including Sales Cloud that enables companies to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through relationship intelligence and collaborate around sales on desktop and mobile devices.
The company also provides Service Cloud, which enables companies to deliver personalized customer service and support, as well as connect their service agents with customers on various devices; and Marketing Cloud, which enables companies to plan, personalize and optimize customer interactions.
With rumors swirling the company is considering a buyout of Twitter, Stifel, like many, feel it is not the best fit. Others on Wall Street feel it would be an expensive price to pay for an estimated $1.4 billion in revenue next year.
Stifel noted:
The major product release and focus of this year’s keynote was Einstein, salesforce’s new artificial intelligence (AI) platform. Einstein is the culmination of over $1 billion in AI investments, including acquisitions like EdgeSpring, RelateIQ, and MetaMind. At a high level, Einstein leverages customer data from the salesforce platform to build predictive models and improve workforce effectiveness and productivity.
Stifel has a $93 price target, very near the consensus of $93.69. Shares traded early Friday at $70.70.
These four cutting-edge companies could all have years of extended growth, and they are very prominent in their respective tech arenas. While they are only suited for accounts that are more aggressive, investors may want to buy partial positions in front of earnings and the elections.
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