Oppenheimer's Highlights From the 100th Annual NRF Conference

Oppenheimer is out with a research note this morning, summing up its attendance at the 100th annual NRF Expo in New York. The analysts said that they left incrementally more positive on the retail IT spending environment. Although the selling-environment remains challenging and recent retail data was mixed (December same-store-sales figures disappointed), they were pleased to see the solid attendance at the conference (up ~15-20% from last year), hear business trends are steadily improving (pipelines for the majority of companies we spoke with are at record levels) and customers are finally returning from "retrenchment mode" to actively seeking and purchasing solutions which can help reduce costs, increase sales and/or help better understand their customers. The analysts said, “While we are encouraged that business trends are improving for most vendors, given high unemployment levels, volatile consumer spending and macro uncertainty we continue to favor companies with market leading positions, attractive valuations and solid value propositions.” The analysts reiterated their bullishness on MICROS Systems MCRS and Teradata Corporation TDC.