QLogic Shares Gain 4.3% On Morgan Stanley Upgrade

Shares of

gained 4.3 percent following Morgan Stanley's upgrade to Equal-weight. In a report dated July 10, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty commented on her forecast for server unit growth in 2015 and the optimal exposure QLogic has in its current position. Morgan Stanley upgraded QLogic as the company is positioned for the most impact for revenue and EBIT from improving server growth. Huberty commented, "Our checks and analyses indicated customers, especially SMBs, are moving workloads to cloud providers. Many cloud environments, especially hyperscale providers such as Amazon Web Services, leverage storage embedded in servers rather than use a networked architecture, like in enterprise data centers. Therefore, QLogic's attach rate is much lower in the highest growth part of the market." The firm is "positively biased" for QLogic's near-term performance. The analyst's CY15 EPS reflects the 5-point server unit growth acceleration model at $0.94. Shares of QLogic closed at $10.21 on Thursday. Shares climbed as high as $10.65, up 4.3 percent Friday morning. QLogic is currently trading at $10.43, up 2.15 percent.