UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrading Acorda Therapeutics

Piper Jaffray is upgrading shares of Acorda Therapeutics

to Neutral from Underweight, and it has a $30 price target on shares. In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray writes, "With the European Medicine Agency's (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (

) reversing itself, now recommending conditional marketing authorization for Fampyra (the ex-U.S. trade name for Ampyra), we are upgrading Acorda to a Neutral from Underweight. The reversal was a surprise to us given that the CHMP initially cited a "small effect on walking speed" as a basis for its rejection. We are expecting approval in 3Q11, and with the inclusion of royalties from partner Biogen Idec, we are raising our price target to $30 from $21. That said, we remain cautious regarding the U.S. sales trajectory for Ampyra, and would expect similar dynamics in the EU." Shares of ACOR gained $3.67 on Friday to close at $30.38, a gain of almost 14%.