Facebook, Inc. (FB) was reiterated a ‘Buy’ by UBS analysts on Thursday. The broker also raised its price target on the stock to $110 from $92 noting opportunities remain for the social networking giant to drive monetization against engagement.
Facebook Inc. Cl A shares are currently priced at 91.42x this year’s forecasted earnings, compared to the industry’s 18.76x earnings multiple. Ticker has a forward P/E of 35.52 and t-12 price-to-sales ratio of 20.17. EPS for the same period is $1.03.
Over the past year, shares of Menlo Park, California-based company have traded between a low of $70.32 and a high of $99.24 and are now at $94.43. Shares are up 31.58% year-over-year and 24.31% year-to-date.
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MasterCard Incorporated (MA) was reiterated as ‘Market Perform’ with $103 from $92 price target on Thursday by FBR Capital. Firm believes MasterCard is well positioned to capture the secular growth in transaction volumes as cash payments transition to plastic, mobile, and e-commerce payments.
On valuation measures, MasterCard Inc. Cl A shares are currently priced at 30.18x this year’s forecasted earnings compared to the industry’s 17.24x earnings multiple. Ticker has a PEG and forward P/E ratio of 1.62 and 24.12, respectively. Price/Sales for the same period is 11.57 while EPS is $3.26.
Currently there are 24 analysts that rate MA a ‘Buy‘, 7 rate it a ‘Hold‘. 1 analyst rates it a ‘Sell‘. MA has a median Wall Street price target of $105.00 with a high target of $120.00.
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NetScout Systems, Inc. (NTCT) was raised to ‘Buy‘ from ‘Hold‘ at Craig Hallum on Thursday.
NTCT is up $2.45 at $39.84 on normal volume. Midway through trading Thursday, 1.49 million shares of NetScout Systems Inc. have exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 2.60 million shares. The stock has ranged in a price between $36.84-$39.94 after having opened the day at $36.99 as compared to the previous trading day’s close of $37.39.
In the past 52 weeks, shares of Westford, Massachusetts-based company have traded between a low of $31.59 and a high of $48.13. Shares are down 15.64% year-over-year ; up 2.33% year-to-date.
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Western Digital Corporation (WDC) was upgraded to ‘Outperform‘ from ‘Underperform‘ by Credit Agricole analysts on Thursday. Separately, the name had its 12-month base case estimate lowered to $90 from $117 at the Benchmark Company. The firm notes that the recent decline (17.32% in the past three months) in the share price makes shares attractive to value-oriented investors.
WDC is currently printing a higher than average trading volume with the issue trading 5.56 million shares, compared to the average daily volume of 2.68 million. The stock began trading this morning at $85.44 to currently trade 9.65% higher from the prior days close of $78.75. On an intraday basis it has gotten as low as $85.02 and as high as $88.46.
Western Digital Corp. shares are priced at 13.22x this year’s forecasted earnings, compared to the industry’s 15.41x earnings multiple. The company’s current year and next year EPS growth estimates stand at (5.4%) and 12.50% compared to the industry growth rates of (4%) and 10.30%, respectively. WDC has a t-12 price-to-sales ratio of 1.21. EPS for the same period registers at $6.54.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company, which is currently valued at $19.96 billion, has a median Wall Street price target of $104.00 with a high target of $150.00.
Western Digital Corp. is down 20.35% year-over-year, compared with a 9.21% gain in the S&P 500.
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Sonus Networks, Inc. (SONS) had its rating hiked to ‘Outperform‘ from ‘Market Perform‘ by Barrington Research today.
SONS shares recently gained $1.27 to $8.14. The stock is down 65.65% year-over-year and has lost roughly 66% year-to-date. In the past 52 weeks, shares of Westford, Massachusetts-based company have traded between a low of $5.91 and a high of $21.15.
Sonus Networks Inc. closed Wednesday at $6.87. The name has a current market cap of $402.48 million.
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