Why Nimble Storage Could See 'Bidding War' From Cisco, EMC And Others

In a report published Tuesday, WR Hambrecht analyst Srini Nandury maintained a Buy rating on

, with a price target of $40. Nimble's shares have surged around 30 percent since the beginning of April, as compared to a 2 percent rise in S&P during the same period. "The company is executing well and has shown solid momentum in its most recent quarter and we expect the momentum to continue for the rest of the year," analyst Srini Nandury said. Although Nimble continues to generate robust growth, its shares have been driven higher by expectations of it being an acquisition candidate. "We tend to agree," Nandury stated, while adding that the storage industry appears "ripe for consolidation" and OEMs such as

,

and

are looking to acquire next generation storage assets. "Given that Nimble is one of the best Hybrid storage assets in the market, any buyout offer for Nimble will likely trigger a bidding war as we had seen previously with both Data Domain and 3Par. And, given that Nimble is executing solidly in both SMB and enterprise storage environments, and is expected to roll out both NAS and Object storage in the near-term (12-18 months) and will most likely get acquired, we reiterate our BUY rating on the stock and maintain our $40 PT," the report mentioned.