UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Reiterates Overweight Rating, Raises PT on Gentiva Health Services

In a report published Wednesday, Piper Jaffray & Co. reiterated its Overweight rating on Gentiva Health Services

, and raised its price target from $10.00 to $16.00. Piper Jaffray noted, “Gentiva is one of our top ideas for the remainder of 2012. Shares are up 71% YTD versus the S&P 500 +12% and the Russell 2000 +11%. While shares of GTIV could be due for a short-term pause, likely attributable to profit-taking, we believe further upside lies ahead as home health and hospice operations continue to improve and solid cash flows should instill confidence in the company's ability to not only maintain debt covenant compliance, but to deliver. We believe shares can approach the mid-teens over the next 6-12 months, which is why we are increasing our PT to $16 from $10 based on 6.5x our FY13E EV/EBITDA. We increased our target multiple from 5.5x due to operational improvements and greater confidence in debt covenant compliance.” Gentiva Health Services closed on Tuesday at $11.52.