UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Reiterates Neutral Rating, Raises PT on Alliance Data Systems Corporation

In a report published Friday, Piper Jaffray & Co. reiterated its Neutral rating on Alliance Data Systems Corporation ADS, and raised its price target from $146.00 to $165.00. Piper Jaffray noted, “We recently met with ADS CEO Ed Heffernan and CFO Charles Horn. We believe management feels very good about 2013 with all three businesses set up to perform well. In our view, 2013 is effectively in the bag with management and investor focus turning toward 2014. Private label will be driven by ~15-20%+ file growth, strong spending and in line credit and funding costs. Epsilon will start slow but catch up quickly. Loyalty will see slightly improved trends as new sponsors and spending ramps, with Brazil hitting even bigger regions. As such, we are increasing price target to $165 based on 16.7x our 2013E core EPS of $9.90.” Alliance Data Systems Corporation closed on Thursday at $154.83.