Piper Jaffray Reiterates Underweight on Investment Tech Group (ITG)

Piper Jaffray is out with a research report this morning, where it reiterates its Underweight rating on Investment Tech Group ITG; it has a $15.00 price target on the stock. The PJ analysts said that the company’s most recent earnings report was primarily in-line to short as compared with their expectations and that revenues posted a year over year decline of 8% due to pricing, market share pressures, and FX. They also noted that ITG repurchased a total of 904,000 shares in Q2, which was roughly $3 million ahead of their forecast. ITG's Board also authorized the repurchase of 4 million additional shares, bringing the total to 4.6 million. As for valuation, they said, “We are maintaining our Underweight rating and $15 price target (10x '11E EPS of $1.45). We remain concerned about the long-term outlook for the core U.S. business as pricing and market share have been under consistent pressure and the competitive environment remains intense. Market pressures seem to be intensifying in ITG's non-U.S. businesses.”