Canon Inc Running on All Megapixels, Full Speed Ahead (CAJ)

Canon Inc (CAJ) can't seem to do anything wrong as far as analysts are concerned. The only bone I have to pick with Canon is it delaying the launch of its SED TVs until sometime in the second half of '07 in order to be more cost competitive against plasma and LCD TVs. Setting that aside, Mizuho Securities revised its price target on Canon upwards by 25% to 10,000 yen per share. As far as I know this is the highest price target that's out there. Mizuho is maintaining its highest rating -- "1" -- on Canon. I really think this was a no-brainer as Mizuho cited the firm's strong and favorable position in laser printers and digital cameras as the reason for an upward revision of both its financials and price target.

The Mizuho target price revision seems to have come out on Wednesday but didn't hit mainstream via Yahoo! Japan Finance until today. At any rate, Canon's ordinary shares (Tokyo: 7751) closed up by 0.60% at 8,440 yen. This is a new all-time high close with its all-time intra-day high being yesterday at 8,450 yen.

When its ordinary share price is converted into US$ we get $71.83 versus a close yesterday for its ADRs of $71.66. The Mizuho target price revision equates to $85.11.

Here's a list of posts on recent analyst takes on Canon:

    • NikkoCiti Boosts Canon’s Target Share Price (CAJ) [Mar. 28]

    • Canon Stock’s Big Growth Potential (CAJ) [Mar. 22]

    • Canon: Analyst Ratings (CAJ) [Mar. 13]

CAJ 1-yr chart: