Huffman likes Siebel Systems because he considers it the leader in customer relationship management -- or CRM -- software, which allows companies to understand customer buying patterns.
CRM is an area on which companies will focus ``when we see companies spending again for tech,'' he said.
Huffman is a fan of Oracle because he feels that it is the dominant producer of database software.
``IT managers thinking about how to leverage that hardware will think about manipulating the database that they've accumulated,'' he said. ``Oracle provides the software to do that.''
Timing the longer-term software rally was a subject in a May 3 note to clients by Goldman Sachs's Rick Sherlund, a top software analyst.
``With stocks already up sharply off their bottoms, investors are understandably apprehensive about these higher valuations without supporting evidence of any improvement in fundamentals,'' he wrote. Evidence of improvement should become more apparent by the December quarter of this year. Investors who fear they have already missed the software boat may wish to buy shares during the June earnings preannouncement period, which may push tech stocks back down somewhat, Sherlund wrote.
Sherlund said he favors software stocks on Goldman Sachs' Recommended List: Siebel, Microsoft, BEA Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:BEAS - news), VERITAS Software Corp. (NasdaqNM:VRTS - news), Internet Security Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:ISSX - news), Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NasdaqNM:CHKP - news), Mercury Interactive Corp. (NasdaqNM:MERQ - news), PeopleSoft Inc. (NasdaqNM:PSFT - news), and Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE:DOX - news). |
