UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades Hot Topic from Overweight to Neutral

Piper Jaffray downgraded Hot Topic HOTT from an Overweight rating to a Neutral rating and lowered its price target from $12 to $11. Piper Jaffray commented, “We are downgrading shares of HOTT from Overweight to Neutral. While we remain supportive of strategies put in place under new leadership and we think 2H estimates are reasonable, we believe that current valuation fairly prices in expectations for stability at the core Hot Topic division. We believe that at some point in the next 12 months, we could see valuation and the investment rationale shift from recovery to growth, specifically as visibility improves into the longer-term prospects for the underpenetrated Torrid business.” Hot Topic closed at $10.16 on Wednesday.