UPDATE: Bank of America Upgrades Lincoln National to Buy on Consistent Performance

Bank of America upgraded Lincoln National

from Neutral to Buy and raised the price objective from $30.00 to $34.00. Bank of America noted, "LNC trades at only 0.7x of book value (ex FAS 115), the lowest multiple among all covered life stocks. Our $34 PO implies total return potential of 22%, and assumes a forward P/B multiple of just 75%. Concerns of low interest rates have constrained the valuation, but we believe the long-term impact is manageable. LNC has met or beaten consensus estimates in each of the last eight quarters (despite a persistent low rate environment), and base investment spreads have declined only slightly." Lincoln National closed at $28.49 on Tuesday.