UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades The Fresh Market to Overweight on Organic Food Outlook

Piper Jaffray raises its rating on The Fresh Market (NASDAQ: TFM) from Neutral to Overweight and reiterates its $60 price target on shares.

Piper Jaffray comments, "We are upgrading shares of TFM to Overweight as we believe a 35x forward multiple is appropriate for a company growing square footage 15%, producing mid-to-high single digit same store sales results, expanding operating margins and generating a 39% ROE. As a reminder, we downgraded shares on 11/17/11 primarily on concerns about slowing transaction counts and the company's ability to successfully expand into new markets while maintaining operating margins. This thesis has not proved to be correct as we underestimated the earnings potential and consumer demand for fresh products in a better shopping environment."

TFM closed at $51.73 on Thursday.

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