By Senad Karaahmetovic
Piper Sandler isn’t surprised about media reports that Nutanix (NASDAQ:NTNX) is considering a sale.
Shares of the cloud-computing company are up 20% in pre-open Friday after the WSJ report said Nutanix attracted takeover interest.
“Nutanix has opened governance policies in recent years to be more takeover-friendly, and we believe the management team and board are receptive to a potential takeover,” analysts said in a client note.
The analysts believe that companies like IBM (NYSE:IBM), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE), or a private equity company, all make sense. As far as the takeover price is concerned, they mentioned the range between $27 and $30 per share.
“We believe Nutanix is an attractive target given the +90% subscription mix / continued subscription transition that supports mid-teens growth, HCI taking share from tier-three arrays, multi-cloud play, S&M changes made by the management team, a favorable competitive environment, +$300M FCF by FY25, and compelling valuation. We see this takeout discussion as helping to create a floor on the stock & would continue to buy here,” Piper Sandler said in a client note.