UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Initiates Coverage on Splunk with Neutral Rating, $69 PT on Attractive Pure Play

In a report published Monday, Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini initiated coverage on

with a Neutral rating and $69.00 price target. In the report, Goldman Sachs noted, “We initiate coverage of Splunk, Inc.

with a Neutral rating and a $69, 12-month price target. We view Splunk as an attractive pure play within the big data category and a market leader in the realm of machine data analytics. While we are optimistic on Splunk's market opportunity and competitive positioning, we believe the shares offer limited upside near term given current valuation. SPLK currently trades at 19X CY14E EV/sales, which reflects a significant premium vs. high-growth SaaS compares at 10X even though Splunk has a perpetual license model and thus lacks the revenue visibility of SaaS peers.” Splunk closed on Friday at $61.98.