UPDATE: Wunderlich Securities Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on Brocade Communications Systems as Analyst Event Highlights Incremental Prospects

In a report published Thursday, Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew S. Robison reiterated a Buy rating on Brocade Communications Systems BRCD, and raised the price target from $11.00 to $12.00. In the report, Wunderlich Securities noted, “This year, networking hardware shared the stage with software for analytics, network function virtualization (NFV), and software defined networking (SDN) in the annual Brocade (BRCD) analyst meeting. The company is also articulating focus on opportunities for the VDX Ethernet fabric offerings in Internet Protocol (IP) storage. This implies the company will bring network automation and management functions from Fibre Channel (FC) products to participate in some of the growth now being experienced by Arista (ANET – NR). It will also provide a path to installed base upgrades if the supply chain eventually extends Ethernet beyond the performance of FC. We are introducing F2016E expectations for acceleration, elevating our 12-mo. target to $12 from $11 and maintaining a Buy recommendation.” Brocade Communications Systems closed on Wednesday at $10.13.