Cisco Systems' (CSCO) transition towards a diversified IT player can be accelerated in an environment of tax reform, Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha tells investors in a research note. He double upgraded Cisco to Outperform from Underperform and upped his price target for the shares to $40 from $27. The stock closed yesterday down 2c to $33.40. Cisco's "major balance sheet could be unleased," allowing it to return an incremental $30B to shareholders over five years, which would leave up to $20B for more transformative acquisitions, Garcha contends. His proprietary M&A analysis yields Splunk (SPLK), ServiceNow (NOW) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) as the top three takeover targets for Cisco. With deals, Cisco's long term earnings power could be $3.30-$3.50 per share, or over 40% above current levels, the analyst estimates.

Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin raised the firm's price target on ServiceNow to $900 from $875 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares ahead of quarterly results. While feedback on Pro+ adoption remains early, the firm's checks pointed to solid renewal execution and continued progress outside of core ITSM, suggesting a solid 2024 start despite Q1s being seasonally lighter.

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Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

BofA analyst Tal Liani upgraded Cisco to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $60, up from $55. The analyst sees three catalysts for growth acceleration: networking to normalize and see renewed growth driven by share gains, security growth to accelerate with the help of firewall stabilization and new product launches, and growth synergies from the Splunk acquisition. While Cisco's next two quarters will remain pressured, this weakness is fully reflected in Street expectations, the analyst tells investors in a research note.