UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Hot Topic to Neutral

Piper Jaffray is out with its report today on Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT), upgrading HOTT to Neutral from Underweight.

In its report, Piper Jaffray writes, "We are upgrading shares of HOTT from Underweight to Neutral ahead of Q2's earnings report. We believe the next two quarters remain critical with respect to this potential turnaround but with a recent stabilization in top-line trends, improvements planned for fashion apparel, a robust licensing pipeline slated for 2H, and with six months under the new CEO, we believe we are nearing an inflection point with respect to earnings."

Piper Jaffray raises its PT on HOTT to $7.50 from $5.00.

Shares of HOTT closed Friday at $6.59, down 1.79% from Thursday's close.