EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the data storage company, has been in a very tight trading range for years. Five years after many of the large tech poster-child stocks bottomed, EMC has had a tough time sustaining a rally.However, according to Barron's Technology Trader column (subscription required), EMC might be a beneficiary of virtualization, software applications which allow users to more cost effectively utilize their hardware. EMC's VMware is a leader in this space and is expected to show a 60% revenue gain this year, according to Sanford Bernstein.
A big driver for virtualization is the move to data centers. Companies can outsource many functions to data centers which specialize in virtualizing services.
EMC has been dead money for a while. This quarter's results should provide some insight into how VMware business is performing. If this business continues to take hold, this stock should attract investor interest again. And as if to prove the point, UBS today upgraded EMC to Buy from Neutral.
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