UPDATE: Canaccord Upgrades Helmerich & Payne to Buy, Lowers PT

In a report published Monday, Canaccord Genuity upgraded its rating on Helmerich & Payne HP to Buy, but lowered its price target from $64.00 to $62.00. Canaccord noted, “HP reported record quarterly revenue, EBITDA and EPS. The positive results are attributed to the continued outperformance of the company's US Land Drilling division, which has driven QoQ increases in HP's consolidated revenue for each of the past ten quarters and consolidated EBITDA for seven of said quarters. Given that the spread between the dayrates/utilization/margins commanded by HP's unrivalled fleet of high-performance rigs relative to lower-quality rigs typically increases in softer markets, we expect HP to outperform peers and are upgrading the company to a BUY rating. However, after tweaking estimates related to our expectation of softening North American land rig demand, our 2012/13E EPS has been revised from $4.90/$5.15 to $5.10/$4.85 while our target price drops slightly from US$64.00 to US$62.00.” Helmerich & Payne closed on Friday at $48.59.