Piper Jaffray Reiterates Overweight Rating on Informatica (INFA)

Piper Jaffray is out with a research report this morning, where it reiterates its Overweight rating on Informatica Corp.

; it has a $32.00 price target on the stock as well. The PJ analysts said, “Our checks indicate solid traction for Informatica during Q2, with perhaps the strongest-ever cross-selling quarter and a material uptick in lead flow and pipeline build. The higher demand levels support our thesis that the Informatica 9 product cycle, along with a broadening suite of data services, is helping Informatica become a more visible supplier with its customers and gain share. We think demand for INFA can remain robust in 2H10, as Informatica 9 activity escalates with the release of version 9.1.” They added, “Of the 5 respondents we spoke to during our recent checks, 4 were positive, 1 was neutral, and none were negative on Informatica's business activity levels. More specifically, our checks suggest: 1) a very strong performance in the domestic financial services vertical, including "cross-selling activity that is outperforming expectations" in that vertical; 2) additional areas of relative strength include Healthcare, domestic Public Sector, ILM, MDM and Data Quality; 3) good linearity and impressive lead generation: "the number of INFA inquiries has increased 30-40% over the past three months", "our INFA pipeline is 30% larger than at the start of the year"; and 4) Informatica is gaining market share as more large customers are standardizing on the INFA platform for data services.” The PJ analysts closed by saying, “We detected bullish commentary from our quarterly checks regarding increased spending on Informatica products, and a favorable tone on execution (i.e., good linearity) that could reflect share gains and acceleration in Informatica's demand environment. While FX fluctuations and to a lesser extent uncertainty on the direction of Public Sector spending in some geographies remain minor headwinds, we believe these factors are trumped by company-specific momentum, likely enabling forecasts to ratchet progressively higher during 2010. Our thesis remains: share gains and accelerating demand driven by the Informatica 9 product cycle and a broadening suite of data integration offerings.”