UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Sunedison Ahead of Multiple Positive Factors

In a report published Tuesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Jagadish Iyer upgraded the rating on Sunedison SUNE from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $6.00 to $17.00. In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “We are upgrading shares of SunEdison to OW and increasing our PT to $17 (15x CY15 EPS of $1.15) based on our estimate of robust solar demand in '14 and '15 at 44GW and 49GW respectively given broad based worldwide demand. We see SUNE benefiting from this trend as its pipeline/backlog is diversified globally which can enable them to target projects with their esteemed brand. We see stability in pricing across the solar value chain (poly, wafers, cells) with module prices essentially bottoming at $0.60 to $0.70/Wp which bodes well for the industry. With increased focus now in lowering Balance of System (BOS) cost, which is 60-70% of installed module price, we see greater value in downstream innovation which naturally benefits SUNE. Post the spin-off of the semi business in 1H14, we see SUNE executing on a 325MW run rate per quarter which should translate into earnings power of $1.15 in CY15.” Sunedison closed on Monday at $10.25.