Polycom Shares Popped: What You Need to Know (PLCM)

Polycom Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of videoconference specialist Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM ) have popped today by as much as 13% on the heels of an analyst upgrade from equal weight to overweight.

So what: Barclays Capital bumped Polycom and ShoreTel (Nasdaq: SHOR ) to overweight while downgrading Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD ) from overweight to equal weight. Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal added, "We conclude healthy videoconferencing and unified communications trends should allow Polycom and Shortel to lead their networking peers. Riverbed's underlying drivers are intact, but demand may be slower to recover in a downturn, particularly in Europe."

Now what: He continued, "Our checks are bullish on Polycom and indicate an underlying shift in videoconferencing usage -- it is no longer just about cost savings, but revenue enhancing opportunities." Networking stocks have been taking a beating lately largely on macro spending fears, but Polycom's revenue last quarter jumped 24% year over year. If the global economy doesn't fall back into another recession, then Polycom's road to higher ground will have fewer obstacles.

Interested in more info on Polycom? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Evan Niu owns shares of Riverbed Technology, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. Click here to see his holdings and a short bio. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Riverbed Technology and Polycom, as well as writing puts in Riverbed Technology. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.