EMC is another company attracting a buy recommendation, this time from Cork-based stockbrokers W&R Morrogh. The company, which is the largest manufacturer of redundant array of independent disks memory storage and retrieval systems for computers, has returned an average 25 per cent increase in earnings over the last five years, with the brokers forecasting continued strong growth.

EMC is set to benefit from the huge growth in the storage of digitised information. Analysts forecast that, in five years time, there will be 50 times more information stored on computer. Estimates for these kinds of products have a poor track record of accuracy but leading analysts feel that the market will grow from approximately $30 billion (€34.82 billion) in 2000 to $120 billion in 2005. "Competitors are less effective at selling storage based on cost and cannot afford the huge research and development spend required to make their products performance-competitive. Based on these factors, Morrogh's believes it represents a good buying opportunity for investors.