UPDATE: Bank of America Initiates Fairway Group Holdings with Neutral Rating on Fair Valuation

In a report published Monday, Bank of America analyst Kelly A. Bania initiated coverage on Fairway Group Holdings Corp.

with a Neutral rating and $20.00 price target. In the report, Bania noted, “We are initiating coverage of FWM (Fairway Group Holdings) with a Neutral rating and a $20 PO. Fairway is a rapidly growing specialty grocer that in our view is redefining the food retailing landscape in the metro New York City region with the growth of its highly productive, hybrid (natural/organic/specialty/conventional), destination stores. From its current base of 12 stores today, we expect FWM to open two stores in 2013 and 3-4 a year for the next few years for average unit growth of 20%. Longer term, we expect FWM to continue to broaden its geographic footprint beyond the Metro NYC/tri-state area (50 store opportunity) to the Northeast (90 store opportunity) and eventually national (300 store opportunity).” Fairway Group Holdings Corp. closed on Friday at $18.30.