Piper Jaffray Maintains Overweight, $47 Target on McGraw-Hill

Piper Jaffray reiterates its Overweight rating and $47 price target on McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) as company details plans to cut costs and repurchase shares to achieve value growth.

Piper Jaffray notes, “MHP intends to realize $50M in cost savings from the following initiatives: 1) a 10% headcount reduction in MH Education, including a 20% reduction in executive staff; and 2) freezing of the company's defined benefit pension plan. … The company further announced a $500M accelerated share repurchase plan to be largely completed before the end of 2011. This follows the completion of the previously announced $1B share repurchase program.”

MHP closed at $42.14 per share on Wednesday.