Auriga Upgrades EMC to 'Buy'

Auriga USA has upgraded the shares of EMC Corp (NYSE:EMC) to "buy" from "hold", saying that the storage company would increase its margins and profits by gaining market share in the storage space.

"We expect EMC will continue to be a share-gaining leader in the very attractive storage space, and its exposure to other high growth markets beyond storage suggests a top-line CAGR of 10%+ is sustainable," analyst Kevin Hunt wrote in a note to clients.

Hunt also said EMC can continue to push margins modestly higher, and thus bottom-line growth of 15 percent appears very possible, placing EMC into the group of elite large cap growth names in the tech space.

Storage systems are evolving into a top priority in IT spending as even in mild downturn consumers will continue to use the Internet, resulting in more data.

Hunt expects EMC to report $1.41 in proforma earnings per share on revenue of $20 billion for fiscal 2011. Wall Street expects earnings of $1.51 per share on revenue of $20.04 billion, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

After the recent market sell-off, the analyst now believes EMC shares are attractively priced given that outlook, and believe EMC's high exposure to a "staple" area like storage offers some protection during a downturn.

"We don't pretend to be able to predict the entire global economy, and we acknowledge that both EMC shares and the overall market might continue falling in the coming weeks. However, we do firmly believe that EMC will be a 10%+ top-line and 15% bottom line grower, over time, even with very modest 2-3% US GDP growth," Hunt said.

Shares of EMC closed Friday's regular trading session at $22.99 on the NYSE.