SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- McAfee Inc. shares surged more than 6 percent Friday, recovering some of the losses that piled up in recent weeks as investors fretted about businesses curtailing their spending on software products amid the U.S. economy's deepening woes.
But those concerns eased late Thursday after Oracle Corp., the world's second-largest software maker, released quarterly earnings that topped analyst estimates.
McAfee, a leading maker of computer security software, is currently in the tail end of its third quarter and won't report the results until next month. But investors are now betting the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's sales will hold up better than they thought.
The renewed optimism helped lift McAfee shares $2.18, or 6.2 percent, to $37.31 Friday. The stock price had fallen by 12 percent this month before rallying in the last two sessions.
Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. analyst Daniel Ives gave McAfee a vote of confidence in a Friday note that reported the company had closed several sales with corporate customers in recent weeks. Ives also upgraded his rating on McAfee's stock to "Market Perform" from "Underperform."
Although McAfee seems to be faring reasonably well, Ives remains worried about a spending slowdown on information technology later this year.
"We continue to be cautious" about McAfee's stock, Ives stressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment