NEW YORK: Shares of Avid Technology jumped following the news of an upgrade from J.P. Morgan. The investment bank lifted Avid from Overweight to Neutral. J.P. Morgan raised Avid’s target price from $13.50 to $17.50. Avid shares (NASDAQ: AVID) rose from trading near $14.20 yesterday to more than $15 earlier today before settling near $14.90.
Avid reported a net per-share loss of 26 cents for the third quarter compared to a EPS loss of 46 cents a year earlier. Avid issued a full-year revenue forecast for 2010 of $655 million to $665 million--low-balling analyst expectations of $664.7 million. However, the company got props for its 2011 projection of $690 million to $710 million.
J.P. Morgan analyst Paul Coster said the company doesn’t appear to be stretching targets, and can still cut operating costs, according to Barron’s.
