Jefferies Reiterates Buy Rating on SAIC Inc. (SAI)

Jefferies is out with an analyst note this morning where they reiterate their Buy rating on shares of SAIC Inc.

; they have a $23.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies cited the company’s recent quarterly earnings report, where booking increased. They said, “Overall, we are encouraged by a better quarter out of SAIC. A solid 1.2x book:bill is the best we have witnessed in several quarters, likely driven by a few large, classified contracts in cyber security.” Analysts added “we feel that we could see some seasonal strength in FQ2 bookings, as we head toward the end of the government's fiscal year. With an intact F10 budget and the likelihood of additional spend coming out of supplemental, headwinds in ongoing procurement delays could be at least somewhat offset.” Jefferies closed by highlighting the company’s stock buyback program where the “$291 million in stock buybacks in FQ1 was significantly greater than what we have witnessed in recent quarters. While the company continues to make smaller acquisitions using cash, we feel the heightened buyback activity this quarter signals perhaps more aggressive deployment of SAI's large balance sheet capacity.” They feel that OCI will likely drive further acquisition opportunities for SAI in the quarters to come.