UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Assumes Coverage on Molycorp at Neutral, $8 PT

In a report published by Piper Jaffray, analyst Mike J. Ritzenthaler assumed coverage on Molycorp

with a Neutral rating and $8 price target. Piper Jaffray reported that, “We are assuming coverage of shares of MCP with a Neutral rating and $8 target, following the company's 4Q results yesterday. With the capital raise in late January, we believe the company has adequate liquidity to ramp Mountain Pass through FY13, though the capex required for small ‘fixes' as the team finds the process bottlenecks is hard to predict. The volume ramp also coincides with a potentially long product development cycle for cerium applications – even if new partner Univar holds promising new volumes, margins remain somewhat unclear. Markets for Heavies, La, Nd, Pr, and other products seem robust enough to justify the production ramp.” Shares of Molycorp closed at $5.99 on Thursday.