Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE) gets Overweight Rating

Michael E. Cox, analyst at Piper Jaffray, has given an Overweight rating to Green Plains Renewable Energy (NASDAQ: GPRE), which constructs and operates dry mill, fuel-grade ethanol production facilities.

The positive outlook is mainly due to recent decision of the company to add a corn-oil extraction facility to its ethanol facilities. The payback period of this project would be 1.5 to 3 years and it would add $0.30 to the EPS.

However, the estimate for the second half of 2010 is lowered due to lower ethanol production margins. The target price is at $18.00 and the stock has been trading at $9.44.