UPDATE: BMO Capital Raises PT on Spectra Energy Following CEO Meetings

In a report published Monday, BMO Capital Markets analyst Carl Kirst reiterated a Market Perform rating on Spectra Energy Corp.

, and raised the price target from $29.00 to $31.00. In the report, Kirst noted, “We recently hosted the CEO of Spectra, Greg Ebel, for a week of meetings in Europe. Overall we came away more constructive on SE's growth prospects and valuation, as reflected in our $2/share increase in our price target to $31. While some have speculated that SE could pursue a grand MLP restructuring strategy (becoming an asset-light parent a la WMB or KMI), this is simply not in the cards, in our view. What is, however, is the emphasis on robustly using the MLP for new projects that qualify. While we generally don't assume such drops before they're announced, our higher confidence in this case makes for an exception.” Spectra Energy Corp. closed on Friday at $29.93.