UPDATE: Imperial Capital Initiates Coverage on Rice Energy with Outperform Rating, $27 PT on Position for Continued Rapid Growth

In a report published Friday, Imperial Capital analyst Bob Christensen initiated coverage on

with an Outperform rating and $27.00 price target. In the report, Imperial Capital noted, “We are initiating coverage on RICE shares with an Outperform rating and one-year price target of $27, which offers 61% appreciation from recent levels. Rice Energy is a small but rapidly growing pure play natural gas company that is favorably positioned in Marcellus and Utica shale ‘dry' gas plays. These plays are amongst the lowest cost natural gas resource plays in the U.S. and poised to be disproportionate ‘winners,' in our opinion, for meeting growing U.S. natural gas needs over the next few years. Rice, in our opinion, is designed to weather a challenging pricing environment in the near term with its high quality assets, best in class execution, firm transportation on interstate pipelines out of Appalachia to premium priced U.S. markets, financial liquidity, and forward hedging aspects. According to Rice, nearly 40% of Rice's future wells should break-even at under $2.35/Mcf NYMEX pricing and 80% at $2.60/Mcf NYMEX pricing.” Rice Energy closed on Thursday at $17.11.