UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Raises PT to $13 on Obagi Medical Products, Reiterates Neutral on Uncertainty

Piper Jaffray maintained Obagi Medical Products

with a Neutral rating and raised the price target from $12 to $13. Piper Jaffray Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem noted, "Obagi reported 4Q12 adjusted diluted EPS of $0.15 (including $1.7M of spending related to the ongoing build-out of the company's e-commerce platform), beating the Street estimate of $0.14. Revenues were in line with the Street, with Nu-Derm up 4% over 4Q11. The growth outlook however is murky in our view given that Allergan (via its SkinMedica unit) launched a non-hydroquinone-based skin lightening product in January 2013. Given the competitive dynamics surrounding Nu-Derm and the added expense and questionable benefits associated with the e-commerce platform in our view, we believe the outlook for sustainable longer-term earnings growth is uncertain." Obagi Medical Products closed at $13.94 on Thursday.