UPDATE: Global Hunter Upgrades Plains Exploration & Production to Buy

Global Hunter is out with its report today on Plains Exploration & Production (NYSE: PXP), upgrading PXP from Accumulate to Buy.

In its report, Global Hunter writes, "Upcoming deepwater spinoff/funding should be a fall catalyst and complete the transition to solely onshore operational focus. With all assets running virtually seamlessly, we are raising our rating from Accumulate to Buy while raising our price target from $40.00 to $54.00 reflecting 6.5x our 2012 EBITDA estimate."

At the time of posting, shares of PXP were trading pre-market at $35.90, up 3.25% from Thursday's close.