UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Lowers PT on Bridge Point Education at Neutral, Uncertainty Limits Upside in Shares

Piper Jaffray analyst Peter P. Appert published a report on Bridge Point Education BPI that maintained its Neutral rating and lowered the price target from $10 to $9. Piper Jaffray reported that, “HLC's review came in the wake of deficiencies found by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) in July 2012 that resulted in denial of initial accreditation to Ashford. BPI submitted a new request for accreditation to WASC in Oct 2012. We expect WASC to render a decision by July 2013. We believe Ashford will retain its HLC accreditation, but at the potentially significant cost of shifting employees to Denver and maintaining a higher level of instructional spending than has historically been the case. This should translate into meaningfully lower margins than BPI has posted in recent years.” Shares of Bridge point education closed at $10.25 on Tuesday.