Riverbed's on a Roll

5:45 PM -- Of all the earnings reports storage companies will disclose in the next few weeks, the one I'm most interested in is Riverbed's on Oct. 26. And not just because it's the first time around for the WAFS vendor as a public company.

I'm waiting for CEO Jerry Kennelly to reveal the secret that has made his company the darling of investors since it completed its IPO last month. Riverbed's shares opened at $9.75 -- higher than its forecasted range -- and has more than doubled since then. (See Riverbed Comes Out at $9.75.) Today, its price hit $20.05 after rising a whopping 11.08 percent.

Riverbed got a boost last week when Jim Cramer pumped it up on his Mad Money show. But today two Wall Street analysts initiated coverage on the stock and were far less bullish. Piper Jaffray gave it a Market Perform rating, and R.W. Baird rated it Neutral. Both placed its target at $18, and Riverbed was above that price before today's jump.

What do investors see? Certainly it's not that the company lost $17.4 million last year and $10.3 million over the first half of this year. Maybe they're impressed with its choice of McData as an OEM partner. In any case, maybe the call on Oct. 26 will justify investors' reason to believe. If not, look out below.

Dave Raffo, News Editor, Byte and Switch