UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Initiates Coverage on American Campus Communities with Buy Rating, $56 PT

In a report published Friday, Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on American Campus Communities

with a Buy rating and $56.00 price target. Goldman Sachs noted, “We are initiating coverage of American Campus Communities (ACC) with a Buy rating, relative to our Neutral apartment coverage view, and a 12-month price target of $56 (32% upside, including dividends), and we add the shares to the Americas Conviction List. We believe ACC's earnings growth – derived from a combination of development and acquisition accretion, as well as moderate revenue growth – should drive share price performance. Our model presumes a five-year earnings growth forecast of 63%, the best among student housing companies and near the top of our apartment and overall coverage. More than half of our strong five-year earnings growth forecast comes from ACC's development pipeline. We also think that ACC is the best situated of the public student housing companies to pursue larger portfolio acquisitions as the come to market.” American Campus Communities closed on Friday at $44.25.