"Earlier this month, Adobe (ADBE) made a surprising $1.8 billion bid for Web traffic monitoring firm Omniture (OMTR)." Read more from Scott Moritz here.

Another of Thacker's choices is Omniture (OMTR), a Utah-based outfit that sells Web analytic software to companies as a service over the Internet. Companies use Omniture services to monitor traffic to their Websites to glean what their customers are doing, Thacker explains. Consistent with the "doing more with less" theme, Omniture clients can maximize their Web operations by testing and targeting their online marketing. While Omniture has been hurt by the advertising recession, Thacker thinks there is pent-up demand for the company's newest tools and services, and sales will pick up once customers start to draw up their ad budgets. After a rough couple of years, the top line should grow 15% in 2009, she says. Thacker thinks the shares, which were trading around 14 last week, could hit 20 over the next 12 months.

Know the business

forward PE of 26, and a PEG of 1.25.

Market Outperform - Price 18.01 on Aug. 19
by JMP Securities

Omniture is the leading provider of on-demand Web-analytics solutions; its software and services enable customers to capture, store, and analyze information generated on their Websites [in order to] to gain more insight into sales and marketing initiatives. To illustrate scalability of Omniture's solutions, we note that NBC selected Omniture to power its NBCOlympics.com Website, which is setting new records for unique visitors, page views, and video downloads. We maintain our 2008 non-GAAP EPS estimate of 46 cents, versus consensus of 44 cents, and maintain our 2009 non-GAAP EPS estimate of 75 cents, versus consensus 70 cents. Our 25 target implies a 2009 EV/revenue multiple of 4.1, a premium to the peer-group median of 3.2 times, and a 2009 [price/earnings ratio] of 34, a discount to the peer-group median of 47. Market cap: $1.1 billion.

The money manager notes that "technology has always been a core focus for our fund. Smaller technology companies have the opportunity to innovate and unsettle larger incumbents." Among his other tech picks are Anadigics (ANAD), Omniture (OMTR), Synaptics (SYNA), Ansys (ANSS), CyberSource (CYBS), and Atheros Communications (ATHR).

Omniture (OMTR) was upgraded from Hold to Buy, Citigroup said. $30 price target. The stock has fallen 45% from its highs, and the risk/reward once again appears attractive.

Baird said it is upgrading Omniture (OMTR) to an Outperform rating as stock has pulled back and modest slowdown in marketing spending already reflected in stock price.

Omniture (OMTR) was upgraded to Buy rating from Hold at Jefferies. Price target and 2008 eps estimates hold at $27 and $0.44, respectively.

best of breed in determining AD effectiveness

don't get me wrong, i like josh james - i think he's a very bright guy. i'm just starting to wonder if there's any money to be made here. wouldn't say this is a least favorite...just starting to sour on it. worth mentioning: it's BV is something like 10% of the share price and sales are roughly 10% of the market cap.

How long do you get to lose money before you suck?

software play that needs a management change