UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Cepheid to Overweight, Raises PT Following In-Line 2Q13 Results

In a report published Friday, Piper Jaffray analyst William R. Quirk upgraded the rating on

from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $37.00 to $43.00. In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “Cepheid reported 2Q13 results in-line with the preliminary announcement. Encouragingly, management resolved its recent manufacturing-related allocation issues and investments to improve manufacturing are a priority. Management increased F2013 revenue guidance to $380M-$385M (was $375M-$385M), but lowered its EPS outlook to reflect the inventory charge and additional manufacturing operations investments (now ($0.30)-($0.27), was ($0.05)-$0.01). We are upgrading CPHD shares to Overweight from Neutral with a $43 price target (was $37) based on ~7x (was 6x) CY14E CDx revenue + ~1.5x CY14E base revenue. We suspect competitive noise heading into/during the upcoming AACC meeting could create some share price volatility, but view CMS' upcoming Hospital IQR decision (potentially adding MRSA & C. diff as new chart abstracted HAI measures for FY16) and viral load (FY14 U.S., FY15 U.S.) as significant potential catalysts, justifying our higher multiple and price target.” Cepheid closed on Thursday at $34.14.