IT shares gain as Goldman puts CommVault, Juniper and Rackspace on ‘Buy’ list
By APFriday, December 4, 2009
Sector Snap: Information technology shares gain
NEW YORK — Shares of CommVault Systems Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and Rackspace Hosting Inc. gained Friday as Goldman Sachs added them to its “Conviction Buy” list, predicting they will benefit from growth in corporate IT spending.
CommVault, which makes software that helps businesses manage and store data, should see its market share grow, said Goldman analyst Derek Bingham in a client note.
He said “storage spending is a top priority for customers” and added that CommVault, which is based in Oceanport, N.J., is “seeing a positive inflection in brand recognition, resulting in growing traction in larger opportunities.”
Goldman’s Simona Jankowski said Juniper, a network gear maker based in Sunnyvale, Calif., should see demand rise “as network capacity appears to be tight and Internet traffic growth has accelerated.”
Rackspace, based in San Antonio, Texas, is well-positioned to take advantage of the shift to so-called “cloud” computing, said Goldman analyst Winston Len.
The company’s technology allows customers to store data online rather than on their own servers. Len said the growth of cloud computing will be one factor helping to drive up Rackspace’s revenue by as much as 28 percent year-over-year in 2010.
Rackspace shares rose 71 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $20.24 in afternoon trading. CommVault rose $1.07 cents, or 5 percent, to $22.14, while Juniper was up 42 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $27.34.
