NEW YORK—Shares of network storage company Compellent Technologies Inc. fell Thursday after a Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. analyst initiated coverage of the stock with a "Market Perform" rating, saying the company's shares are fully valued.
Shares of the Eden Prairie, Minn., company fell 30 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $10.66. The shares have traded between $7.62 and $26.94 since the company began trading publicly in October.
In a client note, analyst Clay Sumner said he thinks the stock is worth $10 per share, as the company's "push up-market may cost a little more than is currently reflected for selling and services."
His $10 price target stems from his expectation that Compellent will see $150 million in revenue by 2010 and a 12.5 percent operating margin, he said.
The analyst also noted that Compellent is still a new company and is growing rapidly, so it is not operating at or close to its target margins.
And he said that current general economic softness could positively impact the company, as it claims to save customers as much as $1.2 million for every 10 terabytes of data it stores for them.
He believes Compellent "will do very well," but also thinks that analysts' earnings-per-share estimates are a bit high.
"Margin assumptions appear to be too high in areas of service revenue and sales/marketing expenses," he wrote.
