Q4 Preview: Brocade (BRCD) Set to Post EPS Following Strong Quarter

Shares of Brocade Communication System Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) are trading flat at $5.75 in midday market movement on Monday ahead of the company's fourth-quarter earnings release scheduled for after the closing bell.

The data center networking solutions provider is expected by analysts to report earnings of $0.13 per share on revenue of $536.59 million.

In the third quarter, Brocade reported earnings of $0.13 per share, in line with the analyst estimate. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $504 million, missing the consensus of $508.41 million.

Since the start of the fourth quarter, shares of Brocade are up $0.90 or 19.83 percent. Year-to-date the stock is down $1.89 or 24.77 percent.

A valuation shows that Brocade is going for a forward P/E of 20.74x full year 2010 estimates.

Data from Bloomberg shows that 16 analysts have a Buy rating on the stock, 20 have a Hold and zero have a Sell. The average analyst price target on Brocade is $6.40 with a target range of $5 to $8.

Analyst Comments

On November 8, Wells Fargo Initiated coverage on Brocade at Market Perform with a valuation range of $6.00 to $7.00.

Wells Fargo analyst says, "We believe Brocade is well positioned to maintain its leadership position in the $2B SAN switch mkt. However, we believe Brocade needs to deliver sustainable share gains and margin improvement in the $25B Ethernet market to justify upside beyond our val. range. We believe this could prove difficult given the competitive nature of the network space."

---

GET THE HOTTEST RESEARCH CALLS ON THE STREET- FREE TRIAL!