UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Nanometrics to Overweight, Raises PT on Multiple Catalysts Ahead

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Auguste Gus Richard upgraded the rating on

from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $13.50 to $20.00. In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “We are upgrading our rating on NANO shares to Overweight from Neutral as well as increasing our CY14 estimates and price target and introducing CY15 estimates. Over the next 12 months, we see several catalysts for the company. First, equipment spending from key customers INTC, Samsung and Hynix is back-end-weighted this year and likely to show an uptick in Q3. Second, the use of FinFETs is going to significantly expand in CY14 and CY15, benefiting NANO. Third, we expect some Flash customers will go into production with vertical NAND in the CY15 timeframe, driving demand for NANO's OCD equipment. Semiconductor device structures are becoming increasingly vertical and this is likely to drive broader adoption of NANO's Optical Critical Dimension (OCD) metrology products, re-igniting revenue growth over the next 12-24 months. Moving to Overweight and increasing our price target from $13.50 to $20 based on 15x CY15E EPS.” Nanometrics closed on Friday at $14.55.