UPDATE: Bank of America Upgrades AutoNation to Buy on 2013 Expectations

Bank of America raised its rating on AutoNation AN from Neutral to Buy and increased its price objective from $44 to $53. Bank of America said, "We are upgrading AutoNation from Neutral to Buy as a result of rolling forward our valuation basis for the publicly traded dealers from 2012 to 2013. We believe that the strong pace of new vehicle sales for 2012 is now well understood and that the market is looking ahead to 2013 for direction on the dealer stocks. Specifically, we are raising our price objective from $44 to $53 based on 16.5x our 2013 EPS estimate, which is the same multiple we were previously using on our 2012e. The valuation now appears compelling in our view." AutoNation closed at $41.54 on Thursday.