UPDATE: Stifel Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on CIRCOR International on Significant Margin Improvement Ahead

In a report published Wednesday, Stifel analyst Nathan Jones reiterated a Buy rating on

, and raised the price target from $85.00 to $95.00. In the report, Stifel noted, “Very solid 1Q and we expect guidance is likely conservative after the 4Q13 miss. Given industry peer commentary recently of increased well completions in North America we expect to see accelerating activity in this business. The decline in orders of 12% in the quarter was adequately addressed on the call, in our view, with management stating that ~$25 million of expected orders were pushed to 2Q. If these orders were received as expected, Energy orders would have been up 6% and overall orders would have been flat. We are pleased to see growth investments beginning, despite some near-term headwinds to margin this may create, as geographic expansion in the energy business appears to be the path of least resistance to driving better organic revenue growth and the company is (finally) beginning to invest in new product development. We believe that management is taking the right steps to turn CIRCOR into a more competitive, faster growing, and more profitable company and hence reiterate our Buy rating.” CIRCOR International closed on Tuesday at $80.23.