Volterra Rallies As Brigantine, Wedbush Up Targets, Estimates

Volterra Semiconductor (VLTR) shares are trading modestly higher after a pair of analysts upped estimates and price targets for the producer of power management chips for PCs and servers.

• Ramesh Misra, Brigantine Advisors: He repeated his Buy rating, raising his target to $32, from $25. Misra ups his Q1 EPS forecast to 30 cents from 25 cents; for 2010 he goes to $1.37, from $1.30; for 2011 he continues to see $1.75. “Based upon our checks, Volterra’s server and notebook business segments appear to have been stronger in Q1 than management’s prior expectations,” he writes.
• Patrick Wang, Wedbush Securities: Wang repeated his Outperform rating, upping his target to $30, from $21. He raises his Q1 estimate to 29 cents, from 26 cents; for 2010, he goes to $1.25, from $1.15; for 2011, $1.50, from $1.45. He writes that checks find “better than expected Q1 business trends,” with strong product cycles in both notebooks and servers, and market share gains.

VLTR is up 48 cents, or 1.8%, to $27.90.