UPDATE: Bank of America Merill Lynch Initiates Coverage on Riverbed Technology

In a report published Thursday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Tal Liana initiated coverage on Riverbed Technology RVBD with a Neutral rating, establishing a $22.00 price objective. According to the report, revenue growth is attributed partly to weak comps and a bounce back from the lows, following the completion of the sales restructuring. It also is believed some of it is related to a sector-wide tide in Q4, with analyst's expectations for solid results from F5, Juniper, Control4, Fortinet and others. “[RVBD's] Management's key points were as follows: a) management rejects Elliott's offer to buy the company at $19 per share. b) It also disagrees with Elliott's demands to cut opex, which would imply exiting one of the product lines or changing the salesforce structure significantly, which management refuses to pursue. c) On the contrary, management believes that its recently announced strategy is sufficient and has already proven effective in Q4,” the report noted. “We remain somewhat skeptical on the sustainability of the trends, yet believe the company's core and new businesses carry some intrinsic value, which we think will help keep the stock at or above current levels.” RVBD closed Wednesday at $20.11 with shares trading up at 1.62 percent.