• Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Hortonworks Inc (NASDAQ: HDP), Tableau Software Inc (NYSE: DATA) and Red Hat Inc (NYSE: RHT) have been volatile in 2015.
• Drexel Hamilton’s Brian J. White named the four Buy rated stocks as the top IT Hardware and Software picks for 2016.
• While tech spending may remain relatively mute in 2016, secular technology trends like ramp up of mobile internet and aggressive investment in Big Data, will remain in full force, White noted.

Analyst Brian White expects tech spending to remain relatively mute in 2016. He added, however, that key secular technology trends could remain in full force.

The ramp of mobile internet and the build out of the Internet of Things, the growing importance of software and the shift of IT resources to the cloud, aggressive investments in Big Data platforms and the move toward open source software are likely to continue in 2016, White stated.

Apple

The price target of Apple is set at $200. White mentioned that Apple is the top mega-cap technology pick for 2016, given the expected launch of iPhone 7 in September 2016, the growing momentum in the wearable category with Apple Watch, a bigger push into Tier 3-5 cities in China and new iPhone opportunities in India.

The company is also expected to continue its policy of generous cash distribution to shareholders, the Drexel Hamilton report noted, adding that Apple’s attractive valuation remains its key strength.

Hortonworks

The price target for Hortonworks is set at $44. White mentioned that Hortonworks is one of the fastest growing companies with a very attractive valuation relative to high growth tech firms.

“Hortonworks also represents one of the few pure plays on the Big Data movement, the only publicly-traded, independent Hadoop player and one of the few plays on the open source software movement,” the analyst wrote.

Red Hat

The price target for Red Hat is set at $98. The company’s growth is expected to be driven by the open source software movement.

Red Hat’s leading position in the enterprise Linux server OS market and the development of next generation applications around Linux are the biggest contributors to the company’s financials, White noted, while adding that he expects the trend to continue in 2016.

“Moreover, growth in Red Hat’s emerging businesses is opening up new areas of future growth,” the report stated.

Tableau Software

The price target for Tableau Software is set at $132. The company is a pioneer in visual analytics and is well positioned to benefit from the Big Data movement, White commented.

The company’s tools are expected to become “must have tool” for information workers. “We estimate that if just 5-10% of Excel users eventually use Tableau, the market opportunity would be approximately $30-$60 billion,” White said.