Ciber shares climb after Baird upgrades on growing IT budgets, attractive price
By APWednesday, April 7, 2010
Ciber shares climb after Baird upgrade
NEW YORK — Shares of technology consulting company Ciber Inc. advanced Wednesday after Robert W. Baird upgraded the stock, citing an attractive share price and signs of growing budgets for information technology.
The stock rose 14 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $4.24 in afternoon trading.
Baird analyst Reik Read lifted his rating to “Outperform” from “Neutral” and raised his price target to $5 from $4.
He said a March survey of IT professionals found more than 70 percent had stable or increasing budgets this year and nearly 70 percent plan on starting a multiyear project in 2010.
Read also noted that Ciber’s IT outsourcing business won a $50 million contract in the fourth quarter of 2009, which he said “reflects some momentum in the business.”
He pointed out that Ciber’s stock is trading at about 10 times his earnings estimate of 40 cents per share for 2011, below the five-year average of 12 times earnings per share.
