UPDATE: Global Hunter Securities Upgrades Atwood Oceanics to Buy; Cost Guidance Overhang Has Passed

Global Hunter Securities raised its rating on Atwood Oceanics

from Accumulate to Buy and raised its price target from $54 to $56. Global Hunter Securities noted, "Another quarter has come and gone with ATW again doing an excellent job maintaining rig uptime in the upper echelon of its peer group, leading to a beat. However, P&L guidance was worse than we and the market had anticipated, which has forced us to reduce estimates. We still expect FQ1:13 will mark the inflection point for earnings, with results improving thereafter on less yard time and newbuilds in the field. We are upgrading our rating on ATW to Buy from Accumulate, as the cost guidance which we were concerned about is now behind us, and increasing our price target to $56 from $54." Atwood Oceanics closed at $44.83 on Friday.