Deutsche Bank is out this morning upgrading Itron (ITRI) to Buy and raising the price target to $70.

Hat tip to StreetInsider.com for the following analyst comment:

“We encourage investors to accumulate shares as we believe 1) sentiment and forward est’s will trough within the next month, 2) there are numerous positive catalysts on the horizon and 3) Itron’s valuation is attractive (14.5x CY11 EPS). While there is risk to the Street’s 3Q est, we believe investors will increasingly look through choppy results and focus on Itron’s earnings potential in 2011. In conjunction with our upgrade, we are adjusting our 2009 (-$0.22 to $1.98) and 2010 (+$0.05 to $3.05) EPS est’s and introducing our 2011 EPS est ($3.85).”

The stock is up about 7% in premarket trading.