UPDATE: BMO Capital Markets Reiterates Market Perform Rating, Lowers PT on Riverbed Technology on WAN Optimization Slowdown

In a report published Friday, BMO Capital Markets reiterated its Market Perform rating on Riverbed Technology

, but lowered its price target from $23.00 to $19.00. BMO Capital Markets noted, “Excluding $7M from OPNET, sales of $232M fell a bit short of our/consensus estimates. The shortfall was not too surprising, given the negative comments on government spending from other networkers, as we had previewed. However, guidance also missed the mark as evidence of slowing WAN Op sales are quickly emerging...Ex-OPNET, guidance was disappointing and missed our estimates. As we had been concerned about, WAN Op growth is slowing post the product refresh. While OPNET was acquired to help diversify the business, WAN OP still represents about 70% of revenue and the slowdown is negatively affecting the model at a faster-than-expected rate.” Riverbed Technology closed on Thursday at $20.10.