This spinoff has a bright future

Article Excerpt

TERADATA CORP. $32 (New York symbol TDC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector: Shares outstanding: 171.2 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; No dividends paid; WSSF Rating: Average) makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data, including its sales and inventory. Teradata then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and trends. This helps its clients make better business decisions. The company gets 55% of its revenue from North and South America, followed by Europe (25%) and Asia (20%). The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of NCR Corp. until October 1, 2007. That’s when NCR handed out its Teradata shares to its own shareholders as a special dividend. Followed usual spinoff pattern Like most spinoffs, Teradata stagnated initially. As a spinoff, it didn’t benefit from the profile-building efforts that typically go into new issues. In addition, many NCR shareholders had little interest in Teradata, since they got it as a dividend, rather…