Eye On Stocks For Wednesday, Oct. 27
Peter Kang, 10.26.04, 6:42 PM ET
Veritas Software (nasdaq: VRTS - news - people ) reported third-quarter earnings a penny above estimates and said it remains on track to achieve $2 billion in sales for 2004. The software firm reported quarterly revenue of $497 million and GAAP earnings of 22 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected revenue of $488 million and earnings of 21 cents per share. Earlier this month, Standard & Poor's Equity Research upgraded the company to "buy" from "hold" and raised its price target to $28 from $22. "We think that Veritas is well positioned in key markets, as storage, data backup and recovery software remain high priorities for IT departments," it said. "With a balance sheet we view as strong, and trading at a discount to peers on P/E-to-growth basis, we would buy the shares." Veritas shares rose 78 cents, or 3.76%, to 21.53; in after-hours trading, shares gained 75 cents, or 3.48%, to $22.28
