Splunk's Product Enhancements Could Improve Its Competitive Position

BMO's Keith Bachman remains bullish and sees 14 percent upside in Splunk Inc (NASDAQ: SPLK) shares as he believes the company's product enhancements would continue to enhance its competitive positioning, while continued focus on ecosystems and partnerships boost the platform.

Bachman, who reiterated his Outperform rating, come away from Splunk's user and developer conference modestly more positive on shares.

The analyst assumes license revenue growth of 21 percent for the October quarter and 27 percent for FY 2017 versus 43 percent growth in FY 2016.

"We continue to believe that Splunk's underlying economics are better than its reported metrics as cloud and ratable mix has increased. We think SPLK's growth remains strong despite any near-term volatility from cloud," Bachman wrote in a note.

"Longer term, we believe that Splunk would make an attractive candidate for a larger company that can add scale," Bachman continued.

The analyst maintained his $66 target price.

At time of writing, shares of Splunk were up 0.66 percent to $58.11.