UPDATE: Bank of America Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on Curtiss-Wright Corp. Following 1Q14 Results

In a report published Friday, Bank of America analyst Kristine T. Liwag reiterated a Buy rating on

, and raised the price target from $71.00 to $80.00. In the report, Bank of America noted, “We walked away from 1Q14 results more confident regarding management's ability to expand operating margins. In the quarter, Curtiss-Wright reported operating profit margin of 9.2% vs. BofAMLe of 8.4%. The margin expansion was driven by higher sales volumes, lower costs from the organizational alignment, and better operational efficiency. In our view, there remains significant upside to near-term and long-term operating margins as management executes its plan to unlock $160mn of operating income. We are raising our operating margin forecast in 2014 to 10.3% from 10.1%. We now expect Curtiss-Wright to exit 2018 with operating margins of 13.2% vs. our previous forecast of 12.8%. We are raising our EPS to $3.45 from $3.40 in 2014, to $4.25 from $4.00 in 2015, to $4.80 from $4.60 in 2016, to $5.45 from $5.20 in 2017, and to $5.95 from $5.50 in 2018.” Curtiss-Wright Corp. closed on Thursday at $68.11.