Needham & Company maintained a Buy rating on NetScout (NASDAQ: NTCT), and cut the price target to $48.00 (from $55.00), following the company's 2Q16 earnings results. NTCT’s $282m and $0.47 EPS are well above $269m and $0.30 EPS consensus.

Analyst Scott Zeller commented, "The SeptQ was a beat and reiterate for NTCT, and is the first quarter of combined results for the company after purchasing Danaher’s communications business. The integration focus appears to have been weighted towards the “core” NGenius and Tektronix product areas -- critical to service provider revenues, which were 61% of total SeptQ revenue. The macro picture for service provider is mixed this earnings season, and NTCT noted it saw a slight lengthening of sales cycles, yet is comfortable reiterating guidance. We believe upside may present itself in EPS leverage, and we anticipate cost cutting above the original 5% annualized efficiencies; additionally, only 4.5m of the 20m share buyback has been executed, and may produce EPS leverage in upcoming quarters. Maintain BUY, new target $48,which is 18x our FY17 $2.62 EPS."

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Shares of NetScout closed at $37.94 yesterday.