UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Take-Two Interactive to Overweight on Outlook Over Holidays

Piper Jaffray raised its rating on Take-Two Interactive TTWO from Neutral to Overweight and increased its price target from $12 to $18. Piper Jaffray commented, "Three factors lead to a more positive bias. 1) A key holiday theme suggests big budget titles are benefiting from "short-tail" purchasing behavior. 2) An improving portfolio of titles outside of GTA is smoothing out the model. 3) TTWO's historic stock performance during the 6 months leading up to a GTA launch has demonstrated market outperformance. We believe GTA V can approach Modern Warfare 3's record as the biggest entertainment launch. Our confidence leads us to June quarter and FY14 estimates that are materially above consensus." Take-Two Interactive closed at $12.77 on Tuesday.