Splunk price target raised to $152 from $114 at Bernstein

Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler raised the firm’s price target on Splunk to $152 from $114 and keeps a Market Perform rating on the shares. In 2024, the performance of software stocks will be driven by sector, segment and company fundamentals, as compared to last year which had a strong macro driver, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm sees only modest acceleration in IT spend growth and possibly softer growth in software segment growth. The macro environment remains stable, and extraordinary measures from 2023 like price increases and margin improvement have limited benefit in 2024, contends Bernstein.