Brean Murray Carret & Co. Cuts Price Target on Patriot Coal (PCX), Costs Continue to Rise

Brean Murray Carret & Co. is maintaining its Buy rating on shares Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX), but is cutting its price target from $37 to $31.

The company released its Q2 results with EPS loss of $0.10, well below the Street's estimate of a gain of $0.07. The firm notes that the miss was due to higher-than-expected costs per ton in Appalachia.

Management did highlight that they booked around 200 thousand Panther-type tons at roughly $150/short ton FOB mine, the firm was modeling just $115/short ton FOB mine.

Patriot Coal did announce that they are now anticipating Appalachian costs to be over $70/ton for the year, above its previous guidance of $63-$67/ton.

The firm is slashing its EPS estimates for 2011, Q3 went from $0.71 to ($0.03), Q4 went from $1.07 to $0.48, and FY11 went from $1.47 to $0.05. For 2012, Brean Murray Carret cut its EPS estimate from $3.54 to $2.66.

For more ratings news on Patriot Coal click here and for the rating history of Patriot Coal click here.

Shares of Patriot Coal closed at $21.04 yesterday.

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