Benchmark Initiates Coverage on Actuate (ACTU) with a Hold; Valuation Call

June 17, 2009 12:38 PM EDT

Benchmark initiates coverage on Actuate (Nasdaq: ACTU) with a Hold rating.

Benchmark analyst says, "Our cautious stance is a short-term call because we think the stock, up 65% in the last 3 months versus 22% for the S&P, may be a bit ahead of itself, potentially driven at least partly by (what we believe to be unwarranted) takeover speculation. ACTU's product line is increasingly broad and is well-positioned versus both classical Business Intelligence competitors (all acquired in 2007-2008 by megavendors)and emerging privately-held open source reporting technology vendors...The business has several upside drivers that should accelerate license growth in late 2009 or early 2010, including continuing momentum for the open source BIRT product line, renewed growth in deployment of reporting applications to customers outside the corporate firewall ("extranet") and increasing need for straightforward analysis tools on top of report data inside the firewall ("intranet").

"While one can 'never say never' about takeovers, we don't believe ACTU is a likely takeout candidate in the short term. Potential acquirers are already quite familiar with the company because they often embed Actuate's software in their own applications, and the Company's relative size makes the acquisition not compelling financially or strategically, even at a relatively depressed valuation."

To see more analyst ratings on ACTU Click Here.

Actuate Corporation, provides software and services to develop and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that deliver interactive content.

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