Analyst upgrades NetApp, sees storage recovery

NEW YORK (AP) — A BMO Capital Markets analyst upgraded data storage company NetApp Inc. Wednesday, saying storage spending will have a "more robust recovery than other product areas."

Keith Bachman raised his rating to "Outperform" from "Market Perform and boosted his share price target to $27.50 from $20.

NetApp recently lost out to EMC Corp. in a bidding contest to buy Data Domain Inc., whose technology helps companies reduce the amount of information that gets stored multiple times.

Bachman said he believes NetApp "will not engage in a high capital commitment to another public company," and he does not see any "natural" fits for the company.

Over the longer term, the analyst added, NetApp would make "an attractive acquisition candidate" for Hewlett-Packard Co. or Cisco Systems Inc.

The analyst predicts that corporate technology spending will improve in the second half of the year, led by storage.

Storage spending, he said, "will lead the (information technology) recovery based on data from the last tech downturn."

Shares of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp rose 20 cents to $23.05 in midday trading.