Shares of EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) posted a new 52-week high of $30.88 Friday morning. The last time shares traded that high was April 2001, more than 13 years ago. What is making the stock so attractive, the company’s performance or activist investors seeking higher returns?
When EMC reported third-quarter results, it missed the consensus earnings per share estimate by a couple of pennies but posted record third-quarter revenues of $6 billion. Free cash flow totaled $1.3 billion, and EMC had a cash hoard of $15.4 billion.
The company expects to repurchase a total of $3 billion in common stock in 2014 to help improve its shareholder returns. The company pays a modest $0.115 quarterly dividend (dividend yield of just 1.9% at the current price). That is a good if not great showing.
Shares hit a three-month low in October and have staggered to this new high. The company’s current CEO has announced his retirement in February 2015 and he has been adamant that EMC will not split up.
EMC has been under pressure from activist investor Paul Singer’s Elliott Management to sell its approximately 80% stake in VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW). The enterprise software company contributed more than a fifth of EMC’s 2013 revenues of $23.2 billion. Elliott has suggested a tax-free spin-off of EMC’s stake in VMware, saying that the upside to such a transaction could exceed 40%. That is the sort of prediction that gets the bulls’ juices flowing.
So it seems that not everyone believes EMC will hold out against a breakup. On Wednesday, short-term bulls bought 2,000 calls expiring January 2 at a strike price of $31. EMC is closing in on that figure.
Shares traded at $30.83 just before noon on Friday, up about 0.4% for the day. The stock’s 52-week range after posting the new high is $23.47 to $30.88.
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