Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:
Shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are up $1.77, or 10%, at $18.87, after the company last night reported fiscal Q1 results that topped analysts’ estimates and projected this quarter’s profit higher as well, while reiterating a year profit view above analysts’ estimates.
Analysts are going two very different ways with this, this morning. Citigroup’s Jim Suva reiterates a Sell rating, though he raised his price target to $12 from $10.50, writing that “we believe that HP�s core businesses remain challenged and we need to see further progress in cost realignment.”
On the other hand, Steve Milunovich with UBS raised his rating on the shares to Neutral from Sell, and raised his price target to $19 from $12, writing “Although the fundamentals remain mixed, the substantial improvement in free cash flow reduces the likelihood of significant downside to the stock.”
Shares of insurance software maker Ebix (EBIX) are down hard for a second day following yesterday’s negative bit by Gotham City Research LLC posted on the Web, despite Ebix responding to Gotham’s charges this morning.
Ebix management writes, “The Company has reviewed the unsubstantiated report released on February 21, 2013. Management believes that to the best of its knowledge Ebix�s financial reporting, including, among other things, the Company�s accounting for and reporting of intercompany loans, is appropriate and complies with all SEC reporting requirements.”
EBIX is off $1.65, 12%, at $12.35.
Shares of Texas Instruments (TXN) are higher by $1.41, or 4.4%, at $33.89, after the company last night raised its quarterly dividend by a third. Stifel Nicolaus’s Tore Svanberg reiterates a Buy rating on the shares this morning, and a $37 price target, writing, “We believe that this news further highlights TI’s commitment to generating strong operating results and cash flow generation given its increasing mix of analog and embedded processing technologies where it can continue to pay a healthy dividend and redistribute its earnings to investors and transfer value back to their shareholders.”
Speaking of dividends, Apple (AAPL) shares are up $1.17, or 0.3%, at 447.35 following hedge fund manager David Einhorn‘s conference call yesterday in which he urged the company to create a new class of perpetual preferred shares that he christened “iPrefs,” to return more cash to shareholders. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of Street reaction yet to the iPrefs idea, though Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley is out with a note on Apple this morning, writing that she thinks there will be increased shareholder payouts.
Shares of wireless networking equipment maker Aruba Networks (ARUN) are up $3.99, or almost 20%, at $24.79, after the company last night reported revenue and profit beat estimates for its fiscal Q2, reporting $155 million and 22 cents profit per share in the three months ending in January versus consensus for $152 million and 19 cents. Price targets are going up this morning.
Wells Fargo’s Jess Lubert, reiterating an Outperform rating, and raising his “valuation range” from $25 to $27 to $27 to $30, writes, “Despite recent fears that weak IT spending may negatively impact Aruba�s momentum, FQ3 guidance was slightly above expectations as wireless demand trends appear to remain strong.”
“Importantly, with many of our contacts citing BYOD as a top IT initiative for 2013, new products seeing strong early demand, and 802.11AC a potentially material longer-term growth driver, we believe our revised ests may prove conservative and continue to view Aruba as one of the best growth stories in the networking sector.”
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