Piper Jaffray Lowers Itron PT To $65, Maintains Neutral Rating (ITRI)

Piper Jaffray lowered its Itron ITRI price target to $65 from $71 and maintained its Neutral rating in a research report published today. In the report, Piper Jaffray states, "We are lifting our FY11 estimates, while at the same time moving our FY12 estimates lower, to better reflect the deployment timing of large AMI contracts. Following our visit to DistribuTech, we believe large investor owned utility project awards may be few in 2011, which will limit upside to ITRI shares in our view. We are lowering our price target to $65 and maintaining our Neutral rating. Against low investor expectations, strong 4Q results could provide a lift to ITRI shares, but we believe significant valuation expansion will be constrained." Shares of Itron were at $60.33 at the time of posting, up 2.55% from Thursday's market close.