McAfee - Morgan Stanley visie

Morgan Stanley reiterated an "equal-weight" rating and $27 target price on McAfee (nyse: MFE - news - people ), saying it expects the software company to report a relatively good first quarter, though expenses related to Sarbanes-Oxley may be higher than expected. The research firm lowered the earnings-per-share estimate to 19 cents from 20 cents. Morgan Stanley said McAfee saw an $11.1 million increase in general and administrative expenses from Sarbanes-Oxley issues in 2004. For the first quarter of 2005, McAfee is expected to still see significant expenses related to the legislation, followed by a return to normal spending. Morgan Stanley said bookings for Mcafee.com were slightly lower in the fourth quarter based in part to delayed revenue from Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ). For the first quarter, the research firm expects a strong bounce if the bookings weakness was indeed mostly from Dell.