SunTrust bullish on data centers, picks CONE, DFT, EQIX

• Favorable trends in cloud traffic are a boon for data-center companies, says SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in a positive launch on the sector.
• Analyst Inder Singh singled out CyrusOne (NASDAQ:CONE), DuPont Fabros (NYSE:DFT) and Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) as picks in the space, which should benefit from growing bandwidth-intensive applications, particularly streaming video. Traffic is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23% through 2019.
• "Given that two-thirds of internet traffic is data center related, the importance of data centers both from a colocation and cloud perspective is significant," says Singh. "Data center traffic is the biggest component of Internet traffic, almost twice as much as the traffic that transverses IP WAN networks."
• Mergers and acquisitions could continue, too, as companies look to become "one-stop shops" for clients and pursue scale.
• The firm launched CONE, DFT, EQIX and Zayo Group (NYSE:ZAYO) at Buy, along with a Buy rating for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), as well as a Neutral rating for Internap (NASDAQ:INAP).
• Price targets: $43 for CONE (22% upside from today's $35.25); $40 for DFT (22% upside from today's $32.90); $345 for Equinix (18% upside form today's $293.21); $32 for Cisco (17% upside from today's $27.27); $7.50 for Internap (7.5% upside from today's $6.98); $34 for Zayo (41% upside from today's $24.02).