UPDATE: Bank of America Upgrades BHP Billiton to Buy Due to Positive Upside

In a report published on Wednesday analysts from Bank of America upgraded their rating on BHP Billiton BBL from Underperform to Buy and maintained their $72 price objective on the company. In the report analyst Jason Fairclough stated that, "We upgrade BHP to BUY setting a price objective of GBp2250, about 22% upside. Our PO represents around 1.2x our DCF derived NPV, within previous trading range. We think that a DY of 4% is compelling to income investors and puts something of a floor under the share price and implies asymmetric risk to the upside. We think that new CEO, Andrew Mckenzie's message is well received by investors and trust is gradually returning. We had concerns about Greenfield spend in Potash but now believe the group is focussed on value and would only proceed with Jansen on non-vanilla derisked basis e.g. JV, stake sell down, etc. We see the wider space as underowned and see upside risk on copper prices." BHP Billiton is down 1.43 percent on the day and currently trades at $57.02