UPDATE: Deutsche Bank Reiterates Hold Rating, Raises PT on Itron

In a report published Friday, Deutsche Bank reiterated its Hold rating on Itron ITRI, and raised its price target from $38.00 to $44.00. Deutsche Bank noted, “Overall tone of smart grid companies at Distributech was cautiously optimistic with most companies pointing to int'l markets as the key area of focus over the next 12-18 months. While activity levels within the US appear to have slowed down, companies pointed to increasing interest from munis/co-ops. We expect limited large projects AMI activity in the near term and expect most of the focus to be on meter data mgmt/network infrastructure spend. While housing market recovery is generally positive for ITRI's core electric business in N. America, we expect declining AMI backlog, slow int'l growth and rising investments/margin headwinds to put pressure on 2013 cons estimates.” Itron closed on Thursday at $46.39.