Long-term trends favour data specialists

Article Excerpt

More advertisers are targeting audiences that are more specific than those offered by traditional media, like newspapers and TV. That’s helping marketing specialists like Teradata and Harte-Hanks. This trend should spur both companies’ growth for years to come. TERADATA CORP. $41 (New York symbol TDC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector: Shares outstanding: 167.5 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.7; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.teradata.com) makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data. Teradata then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and trends. Teradata is taking advantage of the weak economy to hire new salespeople. That’s helping it enter new markets and offer more technology and services to its existing clients. These efforts should add $70 million to Teradata’s 2010 sales. As well, it continues to spend around 7% of its revenue on research. Resulting new products should also fuel its growth. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, earnings…