DA Davidson Maintains Buy on Diamond Foods

DA Davidson has published a research report on Diamond Foods

as the company gains certainty on the timing of the Pringles deal. In the report, DA Davidson writes, "Diamond's announcement today that it expects to close the Audit Committee investigation in about mid-February is a significant positive. This guidance gives us the ability to quantify the slippage on the timing of the deal– Pringles would have contributed a little over a penny per month to earnings. We now assume the deal will close at the end of March 2012 and are reducing our FY12 EPS estimate to $3.10, previously $3.15. Procter & Gamble (PG - $64.04) announced today thatit is committed to the closing of the deal." DA Davidson maintains its Buy rating and $60 price target on Diamond Foods, which is currently trading up $1.03 from yesterday's $31.30 closing price.