UPDATE: Stifel Reiterates Buy Rating, Lowers PT on Tibco Software Following Mixed Quarter and Guide

In a report published Friday, Stifel analyst Brad Reback reiterated a Buy rating on Tibco Software TIBX, but lowered the price target from $31.00 to $29.00. In the report, Stifel noted, “After two quarters of improving execution coupled with an upbeat user conference in October, TIBCO closed FY13 on mixed footing. On one hand, total revenue, maintenance revenue, and EPS were above consensus and it appears leadership/execution changes are taking hold in Americas. On the other hand, 4Q13 license revenue was ~$2M shy of our estimates, Spotfire was disappointing (down Y/Y albeit a tough comp), the BPM segment fell 37% Y/Y, and 1Q14 guidance was lackluster, sending shares down 12%+ after-hours. Despite the mixed quarter, we continue to believe TIBCO offers a unique infrastructure stack and is levered to a number of secular trends (analytics, big data, social, cloud, real-time) that solve real-world problems across verticals. That said, we think this print puts TIBCO back in the "penalty box" and shares are likely range-bound until the company can demonstrate greater consistency and re-accelerate license growth. Given a more cautious posture, we lower our target price to $29 from $31.” Tibco Software closed on Thursday at $24.48.