Citigroup/Deutsche Bank/First Albany/F.B.R./Bear Stearns info from Yahoo...
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messages.finance.yahoo.com
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Why Citigroup UPGRADE NTAP Today? (Not rated) 3-Aug-07 10:38 am
As mentioned at 6:40, Citigroup upgraded NTAP to Buy from Hold following earnings. Over the short term, they expect the co to repurchase 10%+ of its shares; Mid-term, they expect the reduced hiring to translate to operating margin expansion; Longer term, they expect continued tighter hiring discipline meeting normalized demand and favorable comparisons ... Baird is reducing its tgt to $35 from $44 and believes NTAP is setting a fundamental bottom with upside to shares as revenue growth re-accelerates later this year. Firm says to add to positions on expected weakness with co's encouraging bookings, a strong product portfolio, and solid balance sheet ($3/share net cash) ...
Deutsche Bank says NTAP is well positioned to continue posting strong organic rev and earnings growth. They believe continued healthy growth in NAS storage, combined with rapid growth of emerging iSCSI storage and share gains in SAN, should support 10-30% rev growth over the next three years. IBM and Decru could also provide upside ...
First Albany says contrary to reports by IBM and EMC of a recovery in corporate spending, NetApp's mgmt blamed the rev shortfall on continued softness in enterprise storage spending in the U.S. and parts of Europe ...
F.B.R believes, based on info from mgmt and their checks, suggests NTAP is choosing to refill backlog levels for the following quarter in order to avoid another uphill battle in October. Firm believes that underlying sales growth has slowed from 30% plus to the low 20% area ...
As mentioned at 6:57, Bear Stearns downgraded NTAP to Underperform from Peer Perform
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