Itron: Lazard Still Looking For New Highs (ITRI)

Itron Inc. (NYSE: ITRI) shares are being given a positive note this morning.  Analyst Sanjay Shrestha of Lazard Capital Markets is maintaining his Buy rating and $115.00 target.  This number is based on a 25 forward multiple of $4.60 EPS targets from Lazard for forward 2009 estimates.

Shrestha noted a visit to CenterPoint on its "intelligent grid" initiative, which it does not expect the awards from that project to materialize until the latter part of 2008.  Shrestha also noted a 40,000,0000 advanced metering instrument endpoints nationwide and for those companies in the industry.  Shrestha noted that 2008 will be a year or project awards with the meaningful part of revenues and earnings from these coming in 2009 and beyond.

Please keep in mind that this is not saying there are 40 million units that Itron will win, as this appears to be more of an industry-wide total opportunity.  Itron shares are down 0.7% late morning at $87.23, and the 52-week range is $57.83 to $112.92.  A $115.00 target would be an all-time high for this stock.  Another analyst at a competing firm has a $120.00 price target and the average target is over $104.00, so this call isn’t out of the ordinary.

Jon C. Ogg
February 4, 2008