- Needham analyst Mike Cikos reiterated a Buy on Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) with a $118 price target.
- He noted that his talk of Splunk’s eligibility as an acquisition target continues to stir, and he was not surprised.
- A report disclosed that Starboard Value had built a position in Splunk, representing just under 5%.
- Cikos highlighted that Splunk has been in the rumor mill as a potential takeout candidate for some time.
- However, Starboard’s Founder & CEO, Jeff Smith, will likely appear in NYC tomorrow at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit to discuss his fundamental thesis on Splunk.
- Cikos believed the volume of potential buyout candidates and activist investor agitation indicated a deal was likely.
- Smith’s expected conference presentation and discussion on Splunk is rallying support for a takeout.
- The new CEO Gary Steele did not miss a quarter while at the helm of Proofpoint, Cikos noted.
- Furthermore, Steele drove Splunk towards profitable growth. Splunk raised the FY23 operating margin guidance to ~8% (from 0%-2% to start the year), representing a material expansion from -8.2% in FY22.
- The analyst viewed the departure of CFO Jason Child as an opportunity for Steele to put ‘his guy’ in the Chief Financial Officer role. Furthermore, investors believe a new CFO bolsters the margin trajectory story.
- Finally, Splunk never walked away from its $1 billion Free Cash Flow target despite the timeframe to achieve the target being pushed further out by model transitions and the pandemic.
- Price Action: SPLK shares traded higher by 5.81% at $74.31 on the last check Monday.
Voice Of Siri Didn’t Know Apple Would Use Her: The Unlikely Story Of Woman Heard On 2.2 Billion Devices
Hey Siri, who are you?
The original voice behind Siri, the famous virtual assistant on Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) devices, had no idea that her voice would be used for something that billions of people hear on a daily basis.
