Evertz gets round of upgrades, one downgrade, following knockout Q2

After a Q2 in which the company earned $15.62-million on revenue of $81.2-million, a $17.3-million rise over last year’s second quarter, Evertz (TSX:ET) was upgraded by three different banks, and downgraded by one.

BMO Capital Markets raised its one-year target price from $17 to $18.50 and Raymond James, which raised its target from $17 to $18.50. Scotiabank, after initiating coverage of the company late in November with a $15 target, today lowered its price target to $14.10.

Evertz, which is one of a dozen Canadian techs that pays a dividend, announced that it would pay a special dividend of $1.40 per common share payable on Dec. 11th, to shareholders of record as of today, December 4th.

Dieter Evertz founded his eponymous company in 1966, before selling to a group that included current bosses Romolo Margarelli and Doug DeBruin, who came over from Leitch Technologies. The company went public in 2006, raising $67 million in a TSX IPO.

Evertz remains as one of the last public companies standing from a once robust Canadian broadcasting technology sector. The company’s fiscal 2012 revenue of $293.4-million came from a product line that includes timecode equipment, closed captioning technology and multiviewers. Evertz’s products have been used in the production of Star Wars III, Rocky 6, CSI, Oprah and the 2008 Olympics.

Shares of Evertz closed today up .5% to $17.28.

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