UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Heartland Payment Systems on Multiple Positive Factors

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael J. Grondahl upgraded the rating on Heartland Payment Systems HPY from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $34.00 to $42.00.

In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “We are upgrading HPY to Overweight from Neutral. We believe HPY has lagged its peers; our upgrade is based on further operating margin expansion, exposure to improving restaurant spend, continued EPS outperformance, continued share repurchase, growing sales force, and progress on various acquisitions. In our opinion, HPY has also been painted as the whipping boy and a clear market share loser from new technologies like Square, with 9.5M shares short (24.9% of shares outstanding). Lastly, we are increasing our price target to $42 from $34, based on 16x our 2014E EPS of $2.61.”

Heartland Payment Systems closed on Friday at $34.66.