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MORGAN STANLEY: These 9 tech companies could be takeover targets

Jonathan GarberMar 21, 2017, 17:38 IST

Christian Chabot CEO of Tableau Software waits, for his company's stock to begin trading on the floor of the New York Stock ExchangeThomson Reuters

Takeover activity has cooled down a bit in recent months, but there are still some big deals on the horizon.

In a note to clients sent March 20, Morgan Stanley updated its Acquisition Likelihood Estimate Ranking Tool (ALERT model), a model that tracks "stock characteristics, cohort membership, and data regarding offers to forecast probabilities that stocks receive tender offers in the coming 12 months."

The update found that the percentage of the 1,000 largest companies receiving takeover offers fell from 5.1% in June 2016 to 3.9% in December 2016 and that stocks with "poor momentum, high gross margins and historically cheap forward P/E received more offers."

In tech sector, M&A activity was relatively flat during that time.

Here's a list of the nine tech companies that Morgan Stanley says are most likely to receive takeover offers: