Piper Jaffray Raises Price Target On Cree (CREE)

Piper Jaffray is raising its price target on shares of Cree, Inc. CREE to $85 from $65. It has an Overweight rating on shares of Cree. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "We reiterate our Overweight rating and raise our price target to $85 on Cree as we expect Cree to benefit from demand growth in general lighting in 2011/12 given that more than 70% of its revenue is focused on the lighting end market. As our outlook brightens for general illumination demand in 2012, we incrementally raise our estimates for CY12, ticking revenue and EPS up to $1.88b and $3.50 from $1.87b and $3.25. We note that recent projections from market leader Philips indicate a ~$4b market by 2012 for general illumination components, a market in which we estimate Cree is the share leader with over 50% share. We take up our valuation multiple from 20x to 24x as we see greater market opportunity for Cree in the general lighting market in 2011 and 2012." Shares of CREE are up 20 cents to $63.97, a gain of 0.3%.