Piper Jaffray Maintains Rating, PT On EMC

Piper Jaffray is maintaining an Overweight rating and a price target of $30 on EMC Corp.

. According to Piper Jaffray, “We continue to believe EMC is one of the large cap tech stocks to own in 2011, but 1H results will likely be constrained given Japan and Federal spending concerns. We believe EMC will report relatively in-line results with strength in U.S. enterprise mostly offsetting weakness in Japan and Fed. Revenues could be modestly below consensus (acceptable given headwinds in Q1), but EPS should be in line. We also believe EMC will reiterate full year guidance, so anticipate no material changes to EPS consensus. We believe EMC will continue to execute well in what could be a challenging 1H, and we recommend the stock given favorable product cycles, strategic acquisitions and an attractive valuation.” EMC closed at $26.63 yesterday.