Take-Two Shares Jump After Piper Upgrade

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. got a boost Wednesday after a Piper Jaffray analyst upgraded the New York-based video game publisher citing confidence in its profitability.

Analyst Anthony Gikas upgraded Take-Two to "Overweight" from "Neutral" and raised his target price to $15 from $11.

"Our confidence in profitability and execution are incrementally better," he wrote in a note to investors.

Take-Two, best known for the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto" series of games, earlier this month posted a slightly smaller quarterly loss than what analysts were expecting. It also projected earnings and sales roughly in line with estimates for the current, fiscal fourth quarter.

Gikas noted that the company will have an improved pipeline of new game launches between February and July of 2010 because of delays of such games as "BioShock 2."

"Following the delays of several key games into the first half of calendar 2010, Take-Two product flow is currently running at depressed levels," the analyst said. "As we move into the February through July time-frame, product flow will pick up considerably with a number of significant titles launching during this window."