The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, April 18, edition that CIBC World Markets analyst Nik Priebe, seeing the federal budget as a "key derisking event" for goeasy, upgraded the lender to an "outperformer" recommendation from "neutral." Mr. Priebe raised his share target to $200 from $175. Analysts on average target the shares at $205.56. Mr. Priebe says in a note: "Despite announcing new measures to 'crack down on predatory lending,' the changes were relatively benign and (most importantly) did not include a further reduction to the maximum rate of interest allowable under the criminal code. The prospect of more heavy-handed government action in the spring budget was the crux of our downgrade in January. In that context, we interpreted the outcome to be an important derisking event. ... In late January, we downgraded goeasy from 'outperformer' to 'neutral' after discovering that the federal government had completed another consultation contemplating a further reduction to the interest rate cap. The timing of the consultation had surprised us. ... We published a 'probability-weighted' style of downgrade, acknowledging that there was little evidence public market investors were bracing for an adverse outcome."