Avnet, Inc. (AVT) recently announced that it has acquired a controlling interest in Vanda Group from Hutchinson Whampoa Limited in a strategic move to expand its presence and customer base across China. Vanda Group will operate as an Avnet company while maintaining its current operations, management team and the Vanda brand. Vanda Group is a leading IT solutions and services provider covering major cities in China, Hong Kong and Macau, and has been around 27 years. Vanda Group provides systems integration services and solutions incorporating hardware and software from major suppliers including IBM (IBM), Lenovo, Cisco (CSCO), Sun (JAVA), Nokia (NOK) and Oracle (ORCL). The company serves clients from diverse industries including major banks, financial institutions, telecommunications companies, utilities and government departments. Vanda Group generated revenues of approximately $50 million in 2008 and employs more than 600 people. The transaction will ...

Northrop Grumman: Best Offense a Good DefenseNorthrop Grumman (NOC) is a margin-upside and cash redeployment story, in our view. During 2008, total order backlog reached a company record of $78 billion. This lays a great foundation for future organic growth.The company -- with an order backlog of $76.9 billion after the end of the 1st quarter of fiscal 2009 -- offers a diversified program portfolio mix, continued improvement in sales and earnings, an improving balance sheet and an ongoing share repurchase program.In the short-term, performance will be affected by higher FAS/CAS exposure and the Departement of Defense's [DoD] deferral of the tanker bid. However, this defense contractor remains well-positioned for solid defense spending on network-centric/intel initiatives and continues to make progress toward high priority integrated system design and solutions. The high value postal service contract will further help diversify the company away ...

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) is one of the world's leading shipbuilders and the second largest defense contractor in the U.S. The company supplies a broad array of products and services to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), including electronic systems, information technology, submarines and surface ships, aircraft, space technology, and systems integration services.Northrop Grumman offers a strong program portfolio positioned to take advantage of growth areas in the defense budget, an improving balance sheet, and an ongoing share repurchase program. Favorable projected revenue, the acquisition of 3001 International, raised fiscal 2008 guidance, diversified revenue and earnings streams with strong growth and discounted relative valuation metrics collectively support our bullish outlook for NOC.Accordingly, we maintain our BUY recommendation on NOC common stock with a six-month target price of $52.00. Price appreciation to our near-term valuation target coupled with the $0.40 per share quarterly dividend which ...

Northrop Grumman (NOC) offers a strong program portfolio positioned to take advantage of growth areas in the defense budget, an improving balance sheet and an ongoing share repurchase program. Favorable projected revenue, the acquisition of 3001 International, favorable ruling regarding the BAMS contract [a deal offered NOC by the U.S. Navy, validated by the Government Accounting Office, or GAO], diversified revenue and earnings streams with strong growth and discounted relative valuation metrics collectively support our bullish outlook for NOC. Accordingly, we maintain our BUY recommendation on NOC common stock with a six-month target price of $54.75. Price appreciation to our near-term valuation target coupled with the $0.40 per share quarterly dividend which we deem secure and sustainable based upon low projected payouts, represents 24.1% upside potential.The company supplies a broad array of products and services to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), including electronic ...