Sterne Agee Raises Price Target On Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI)

Sterne Agee is raising its earnings estimates and price target on Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V.

after the company reported better than expected earnings yesterday. It's maintaining its Neutral rating and raising its price target to $28 from $26. In the research note sent to clients, Sterne Agee writes, "CBI is proving that it has improved the quality of its backlog with improving execution and is positioned to maintain a strong backlog throughout 2011, in our view. However, we maintain our Neutral rating as we continue to await visibility into the company's ability (internally or externally) to grow backlog sustainably beyond the $7.0B-$7.5B range. Due to our new 2011E EPS of $2.25, we are raising our price target to $28 (from $26) based on shares trading at 12.5X EPS." Shares of CBI lost 63 cents yesterday to close at $25.14, a loss of 2.4%.