Two stocks set to give you spinoff gains

Article Excerpt

COVID-19 has slowed the announcement of new spinoffs That’s because the new firms could have trouble attracting investors during the current stock market volatility. That, in turn, would hurt their stock prices. However, we expect spinoff activity will pick up as the pandemic eases. Here’s our latest take on two firms poised to spin off assets in 2021. VERINT SYSTEMS INC. $45 is a spinoff buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol VRNT; Manufacturing Sector; Shares outstanding: 64.5 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; No dividend paid; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.verint.com) makes software that helps corporations automate some of their customer engagement activities through the use of intelligent virtual assistants. The company still plans to split into two separate, publicly traded businesses in early 2021. The customer engagement business will have almost $1 billion in sales while the new cyber intelligence business will have sales of about $500 million. Verint believes the split makes it easier for investors to evaluate the businesses. As part of the coming spinoff, private equity…