Donaldson price target raised to $71 from $70 at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley raised the firm’s price target on Donaldson (DCI) to $71 from $70 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm says in its Q1 earnings preview for the North America machinery group that it sees "more beats than misses materializing across the bulk of our Machinery coverage," adding that share price follow-through is "less of a certainty relative to prior quarters as investors increasingly discount near-term EPS upside." Near-term EPS and guidance upside "will be discounted more" than in prior quarters, contends the firm, which thinks early reads from Acuity Brands (AYI) and Lindsay (LNN) "underscore the idea that investors are looking for cracks in the pavement."