By Sam Boughedda
Piper Sandler analysts said in a note Tuesday that the firm's top picks in the cloud automation software sector continue to be Five9 (NASDAQ:FIVN), Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET), and Nutanix (NASDAQ:NTNX) heading into 2023.
The analysts have an Overweight rating on all three stocks and a price target of $61 on Five9 shares, $164 on Arista, and $33 on Nutanix.
"Over the last few weeks, there have been various news items that had large impacts on our coverage universe," wrote the analysts. "The Avaya-bankruptcy possibility is a positive for the rest of the space, and in particular, the CCaaS & UCaaS players as customers accelerate their shift off Avaya and to the cloud."
They went on to state that while the deal between Nutanix and HPE appears off the table, Nutanix has "multiple fundamental tailwinds that leaves it well-positioned," and they don't believe the strategic takeover story is necessarily over.
"Lastly, the lack of the R&D tax credit in the latest government funding bill could result in EPS estimates being impacted across technology," the analysts concluded.