The RBC Mobile and Cloud investor day is Wednesday in Boston, and many of the top companies in the field will be there and presenting. It also gives the RBC team a chance to have direct conversations with the top executives from the industry. Here are five top stocks in the sector rated Outperform at RBC: A10 Networks Inc. (NYSE: ATEN), Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX), F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) and Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ: RDWR).
A10 Networks
A10 Networks is a leader in application networking, providing a range of high-performance application networking solutions that help organizations ensure that their data center applications and networks remain highly available, accelerated and secure.
The RBC team says that investors are eyeing continued progress at the company as it improves on execution. The company has dealt with so-so carrier spending, seasonality in Japan, currency headwinds and enterprise selling deal cycles. They also cite security gaining traction at the company and expect revenue contribution this year.
The RBC price target for the stock is set at $6, and the Thomson/First Call consensus target price is $5.88. Shares closed Monday at $4.67.
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Amdocs
This company is a customer management software company that provides billing and customer relationship management software and services for communications, media and entertainment industry service providers worldwide. With revenue of $3.6 billion in fiscal 2014, Amdocs has more than 22,000 employees who serve customers in over 80 countries.
The RBC report indicated the company sees carrier consolidation as a market positive longer term. They also point out the company has strong visibility and revenues coverage generating an outstanding $600 million in free cash flow a year. They think the company can continue growing this business organically and through additional acquisitions. We recently cited the company as a possible takeover candidate.
Amdocs investors are paid a 1.3% dividend. The RBC price target is $59, and the consensus target is at $57.20. The shares closed Monday at $54.48.
F5 Networks
This company provides solutions for an application world. It helps organizations seamlessly scale cloud, data center, telecommunications and software defined networking (SDN) deployments to successfully deliver applications and services to anyone, anywhere, at any time. F5 solutions broaden the reach of IT through an open, extensible framework and a rich partner ecosystem of leading technology and orchestration vendors. This approach lets customers pursue the infrastructure model that best fits their needs over time.
With a new CEO, Manny Rivelo, replacing the very popular John McAdam, who will remain as the chairman of the board, the RBC team is interested the mid to longer term plans for the company. They point out that Rivelo was chosen from within the company so the status quo should remain the same. Again, security is helping to drive revenues as the company gains share from rivals.
The RBC price target for this top stock to buy is $138, and the consensus target is at $130.21. The stock closed Monday at $124.41.
JDS Uniphase
This company was a pioneer of the optical revolution that began in the 1990s and announced last year a plan to split into two separate companies. One will be an optical and laser company, while the second will be a network and service enablement company. Many Wall Street analysts have felt that this is a very positive catalyst for shareholders. In addition, company management remains very confident about the prospects of the business as the need for bandwidth across the world increases. As a result, the company is seeing strong demand in the Americas for its 100G products and LTE solutions.
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The RBC team points out the Datacom momentum is growing as the company has started going direct to large data centers utilizing the 40G/100G products. The spin-off should be completed by the third quarter of this year.
Recent analyst discussions with the company have been centered on the growth potential of JDSU’s fiber laser offering, which generated an annualized $60 million in revenue in the most recent quarter. The newest generation of offerings has 2, 4 and 6 kilowatts of output power. Some on Wall Street have also hinted at a possible Finisar JDS Uniphase transaction or merger.
The RBS price target is $17, and the consensus target is $13.71. The stock closed Monday at $12.84.
Radware
Radware is a global leader of application delivery and application security solutions for virtual, cloud and software defined data centers. Its award-winning solutions portfolio delivers service level assurance for business-critical applications, while maximizing IT efficiency. Radware’s solutions empower more than 10,000 enterprise and carrier customers worldwide to adapt to market challenges quickly, maintain business continuity and achieve maximum productivity while keeping costs down.
The company recently posted solid earnings and announced a new share repurchase plan allowing the repurchase of up to $40 million of ordinary shares. The RBC team is bullish on the company as the on-premise/subscription platform is resulting in gross margins of an astonishing 83%.
The RBC price target for the stock, which is rated Outperform/Speculative Risk, is $26, and the consensus target is $27.31. The shares closed Monday at $23.50.
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Aggressive accounts should have a position in this top growing technology sector. Demand continues to grow, as do safety and security concerns. The top stocks will be afforded rich multiples, if earnings can grow consistently higher.
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