UPDATE: Bank of America Upgrades CenterPoint Energy; Raises PO

According to a research report published this morning, Bank of America has upgraded CenterPoint Energy CNP from Neutral to Buy, and raised PO from $21 to $22. In the report, Bank of America commented, "CNP is an attractive gas infrastructure story with significant LT growth investment prospects and potential valuation upside of an MLP. CNP received ~$1.7B of proceeds from a TX Supreme Ct decision. We do not believe the current stock price reflects any accretive use of cash. We believe CNP will likely be able to deploy this cash into projects that drive upside and then consider forming an MLP. We see the downside to the stock around $19 on status quo, but see possible upside to $27 with an MLP and attractive investments." CenterPoint Energy closed yesterday at $19.72.