EMC (EMC)

Strong customer lock-in for support contracts

EMC generated in excess of $600M in free cash flow in Q1 and another nearly $500M in Q2. The company is a cash machine.

EMC's current growth rate can be sustained if VMW continues to grow, or at least maintains its current position. Basic calculations indicate that, given the market value of VMW, EMC's stock is way undervalued. Eventually either EMC will have to rise to a point where its ownership of VMW is reflected in the share price, or VMW will have to suffer a substantial downturn. Given the strength of VMW, I think EMC is destined to continue rising.

Portion of capital from VMWare spin-off is intended to be returned to EMC shareholders

Low price to earnings (P/E) ratio compared to other IT companies

EMC holds 326 million shares of VMW. With 2,098 million shares of EMC outstanding, each EMC share actually includes 0.155 shares of VMW. Since VMW closed at $78.84 on November 23, that means that VMW accounts for $12.22 of EMC's value. Since EMC closed at $18.45 on the 23rd, the implication is that an investor is getting the rest of EMC's business for just $6.23. This likely represents an attractive price for EMC and one could short a small portion of VMW (155 shares for every thousand EMC shares owned) to hedge against the price fluctuation in VMW.