Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE) gets Overweight Rating

Michael E. Cox, analyst at Piper Jaffray, has given an Overweight rating to Green Plains Renewable Energy GPRE, which constructs and operates dry mill, fuel-grade ethanol production facilities. The positive outlook is mainly due to recent decision of the company to add a corn-oil extraction facility to its ethanol facilities. The payback period of this project would be 1.5 to 3 years and it would add $0.30 to the EPS. However, the estimate for the second half of 2010 is lowered due to lower ethanol production margins. The target price is at $18.00 and the stock has been trading at $9.44.