ServiceMaster PT Lifted at Piper Jaffray

Piper Jaffray analyst George Tong reiterated an Overweight rating, raised estimates and raised his price target on ServiceMaster to $26.00 (from $22.00) citing earnings upside following heightened pest activity, Streetinsider.com reported.

Tong commented, "We see an upward bias in consensus estimates for ServiceMaster given strong recent pest activity across the U.S. Outbreaks of bedbugs, West Nile Virus, ant invasions and drought-driven insect activity stand to boost demand for ServiceMaster's Terminix business as residential and commercial property owners respond and adopt curative or
preventative measures."

He added, " We continue to view ServiceMaster as a differentiated provider of integrated, end-to-end essential facilities services and see execution of growth and margin initiatives, financial de-levering and multiple convergence to peer Rollins as valuation catalysts."

The firm raised FY 2014 EPS from $1.24 to $1.25 and FY 2015 EPS from $1.33 to to $1.34.