Needham & Company upgraded Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA) from Buy to Strong Buy with a price target of $100 (from $70), suggesting 60% upside. The firm cite a rare "hyper growth' story in semis.

Analyst Rajvindra S. Gill comments, "We are upgrading SYNA to Strong Buy & increase our PT to $100 (or ~60% upside at current levels). SYNA posted a significant beat and raise qrt owing to substantial momentum in fingerprint and ongoing strength in its core touch biz. Over the next 12-24 months, we forecast the fingerprint business could add $2.50-$3.00 of incremental EPS, combined with $3.50-$4 EPS from core touch. Over the past 2.5 years, SYNA has transformed itself: growing from $598MM in sales in FY11 to a projected $1.15BN in FY15. It's rare where we find a semi company growing 30-40% Y/Y with over $10 net cash per share trading at 13x fwd P/E (ex-cash)."

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Shares of Synaptics closed at $64.01 yesterday.