Tuesday October 3 11:16 AM ET
Goldman's Cohen Says Tech Sector to Revive
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman's technology stock brain trust said on Tuesday the
hard-pressed sector is poised for a comeback within the next several weeks as profit outlooks
strengthen and relative valuations improve.
``We believe that the backdrop for investments in technology is favorable,'' Abby Joseph Cohen,
one of Wall Street's most influential stock analysts, said in a conference call, reevaluating a sector
she had labeled as overvalued in March.
She said the plunge in technology stock prices in the last six months had reduced her concerns
about relative valuations. The recent deceleration in the U.S. economy was laying the groundwork
for a favorable new economic cycle, she argued.
``Stocks do best not necessarily when profits are at their best but when investors are confident
about their growth visibility,'' Cohen said.
Goldman's technology researchers said during the call they favored three segments of the industry:
storage systems providers, network equipment and Internet infrastructure software suppliers.
Analyst Laura Conigliaro said Goldman's top picks were EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC - news),
Network Appliance Corp. (NasdaqNM:NTAP - news), Juniper Networks Inc. (NasdaqNM:JNPR
- news), Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news), Oracle Corp. (NasdaqNM:ORCL - news) and BEA Systems Inc.
(NasdaqNM:BEAS - news). |
