UPDATE Canaccord Upgrades Ultra Petroleum to Buy, Raises PT to $53

Canaccord raises its rating on Ultra Petroleum UPL to Buy from Hold and raises its price target from $50 to $53 as productivity shift and upcoming guidance outperformance. Canaccord notes, "Our meeting with senior management provided us with greater confidence that the company is indeed at a productivity inflection point. Further, we believe preliminary '12 guidance of 290-300 Bcfe is conservative and are increasing our '12 production estimate from 300 Bcfe to 305 Bcfe. Finally, valuation appears attractive as UPL has declined almost 40% this year, underperforming the sector by ~25 percentage points." UPL closed at $29.24 per share on Tuesday.