UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Reiterates Overweight Rating, Raises PT on The Gap

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray & Co. reiterated its Overweight rating on The Gap

, and raised its price target from $36.00 to $41.00. Piper Jaffray noted, “We are slightly more cautious on GPS shares near-term, into Q2's earnings release on Thursday, Aug 16, as we believe management's guidance could be consistently conservative, and could therefore fall below the Street's published $2.08 for FY13. We are maintaining our view that GPS is among the best positioned retailers for 2H top-line momentum, margin recovery, earnings outperformance, and longer-term opportunity tied to an emerging bottoms-led fashion cycle. We believe the multiple can continue to expand as we believe the investment rationale is shifting from recovery to growth led by initiatives in e-commerce, outlet and international expansion. As such, we are raising our PT from $36 to $41.” The Gap closed on Friday at $34.21.