UPDATE: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Raises PO on Piedmont Natural Gas to $28

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with its report today on Piedmont Natural Gas

, raising its PO from $27 to $28. In its report, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "Although we recognize investors may be drawn to the more defensive characteristics of gas utilities amidst a more uncertain macroeconomic environment, we maintain our Underperform rating on PNY. That said, we are raising our PO to $28 (from $27) based on a multiple of roughly 15x our new 2013E EPS estimate of $1.85/sh." At the time of posting, shares of SNY were trading at $30.50, up 0.10% from Friday's close.