CS First Boston Raises Mercury Interactive Outlook

Credit Suisse First Boston raised estimates on Mercury Interactive (MERQ

).

Analyst John Rizzuto says $0.14 beat his $0.10 estimate, and he upped the $0.67 2002 EPS estimate to $0.70, and also raised the $0.83 2003 estimate to $0.86. Rizzuto sees $400 million in 2002 revenue and $467 million in revenue for 2003. He says the company indicated that visibility going into the second quarter is stronger than in the first quarter, adding that the company's pipeline has expanded while the backlog has grown -- including several $1 million deals.

Rizzuto notes Mercury Interactive is seeing stabilization of its core testing business and accelerating growth in its application performance management solutions business. He says the company now believes it is well-positioned to address the enterprise-wide, multi-billion-dollar systems management market, which currently is less than 10% of revenue. He reiterates his strong buy rating.