EMC CEO Suggests Co.'s Stock Price Has Room To Rise
By ROSS SNEL
NEW YORK -- Shares of EMC Corp. (EMC), a maker of data storage software and systems, have room to rise, the company's top executive suggested Tuesday.
"We had the fastest growth rate our base business in the latest quarter that we've had since 1995," Mike Ruettgers, the president and chief executive officer told Dow Jones Newswires. "That would imply that this is not a stock that is overvalued."
Ruettgers also noted that some analysts had near-term targets of 150 for the company's shares, which recently changed hands at 132 5/16, up 2 13/16, or 2.1%.
Last week, EMC of Hopkinton, Mass. reported first-quarter earnings of 30 cents a diluted share, an increase of 49% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Like other technology companies, EMC has seen its share price gyrate in recent weeks when the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index posted some of its largest historical sell-offs, Ruettgers noted.
"Clearly, some of the Internet companies got ahead of themselves," he said. "That is making people cautious of some components of the technology sector. But I think the major technology companies -- EMC, Oracle and Cisco -- will do just fine."
Ruettgers also touted what he said was the fully integrated nature of his company's products and services. EMC announced a slew of new data storage systems and software Tuesday, including a new line of Symmetrix enterprise storage systems and new connectivity options for its storage network.
"We have announced more products today than most of our competitors will announce this year," Ruettgers said. |
