Pritchard Capital Partners Upgrades Gulf Island to Buy (GIFI)

Pritchard Capital Partners is out with a research report this afternoon, where it upgraded Gulf Island Fabrication Inc.

to Buy, from Hold. The PCP analysts cited the company’s recent earnings report, which matched the Street’s estimates. GIFI also indicated that customers are planning to proceed with deepwater Gulf of Mexico projects that won’t need drilling permits for nearly 2 years. The PCP analysts said that in regards to deepwater drilling, management indicated it is also looking to pick up jobs in the North Sea and West Africa. As for valuation, the PCP analysts said, “We revised our price target to $22 from $26 based on a 14.7x multiple applied to our 2011 EPS estimate of $1.50. Risks to our investment thesis include delays in upstream projects in the GOM, North Sea, West Africa and other deepwater regions.”