Piper Jaffray Surveys Classrooms of New Oriental Education

Piper Jaffray has published a report on New Oriental Education EDU that reiterates rating and price targets. In the report, Piper Jaffray wrote, "We are reiterating our Overweight rating and $146 price target (30.9x CY12E PF EPS of $4.73) on EDU shares ahead of the company's 4Q (May) earnings report on Monday July 18th. We recently visited two New Oriental Beijing learning centers, together with a number of competitor learning centers in Beijing. Based on these visits, we believe enrollment growth across the after-school tutoring segment continues to be healthy, and we expect New Oriental, with its leading brand, to benefit. We anticipate operating margin expansion to return to the story in FY12, on the back of continued healthy enrollment growth, improved facility utilization, pricing power, and prudent cost control." The report also noted a healthy enrollment growth for the company. Piper Jaffray rated New Oriental Education as Overweight and gave it a price target of $146.00. New Oriental Education closed Thursday at $116.15.