Green Seen For Redback

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Christopher Stix upped his rating on Internet infrastructure equipment provider Redback Networks Inc. to "strong buy" from "outperform," and set a 12-month price target of $150. Redback, which closed at $138.75 on Oct. 17, makes a subscriber-management system that allows telecom providers to rapidly deploy high-speed access to the Internet and corporate networks. Redback began shipping the "SMS 10000" broadband-management system and its "SmartEdge 800" metro optical router in the third quarter. The products already account for 50 percent of revenue, "indicating that the company is at the beginning of a strong product cycle," Stix wrote.