UPDATE: KLR Group Upgrades Rice Energy Inc

In a note published Monday morning, KLR Group analyst Gail Nicholson upgraded shares of Rice Energy Inc RICE from Accumulate to Buy and maintained a $38 price target.

As support for the upgrade, Nicholson noted the company has increased its acreage 56 percent since its IPO and plans to add another 13,400 net acres by 2014 year-end, forecasts of ~115 percent production growth in 2014 and ~95 percent in 2015, second in class capital intensity, and superior cash flow per share growth from 2014 to 2016.