Summit Research Starts Imperva (IMPV) at Buy

Summit Research initiates coverage on Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) with a Buy rating and a price target of $75.00.

Analyst Srini Nandury commented, "We are initiating coverage of Imperva with a BUY rating and a $75 PT, based on a 7.2x multiple on EV/C2016 sales, at a discount to our peer group average of 7.6x (given Imperva's history of mis-execution as well as its slightly lower growth compared to the group). Imperva's products are considered to be the best in the industry (rated by independent industry analysts such as Gartner) and are used to secure web and stand-alone applications. That said, Imperva's execution also continues to improve under the new management and we believe its growth rates will continue to improve from the current levels as enterprises begin to have a laser-like focus on securing internal assets. Internal assets such as databases have been the target of some of the largest recent breaches (JP Morgan, Anthem, Office of Personnel Management, IRS, etc.). Therefore, we expect revenue to accelerate from the low-20's levels to mid-to-high-20's levels driven by: 1) The market moving in Imperva's favor (TAM growing north of 25%), 2) Productivity improvements of its existing sales force, 3) Growth of subscriptions (grew 89% last quarter), 4) Upsell/cross sell more products to its existing customers, and, lastly, 5) New customer additions (aided win rates as high as 80% in proof of concepts). Given all of the above, we believe the company is a good acquisition candidate given that it is one of the best pure play web and application firewalls available in the business today. We believe any acquirer will need to pay a premium from the current levels, given the scarcity of similar standalone assets in the market. Initiate with BUY."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Imperva click here. For more ratings news on Imperva click here.

Shares of Imperva closed at $67.00 yesterday.

You May Also Be Interested In