UPDATE: Morgan Stanley Reiterates Overweight Rating, Raises PT on CONSOL Energy Following Sale of Consolidated Coal Assets

In a report published Monday, Morgan Stanley analyst Evan L. Kurtz reiterated an Overweight rating on

, and raised the price target from $44.00 to $48.00. In the report, Morgan Stanley noted, “We view the sale of the Consolidated Coal assets as value enhancing. Our refreshed sum-of-the-parts value rises to $48 on the back of the recently announced sale of five longwall mines. The assets were sold at ~7.2x 2014 adjusted EBITDA, which is in line with our prior valuation. Diverting the cash from the low-growth coal segment to the high growth gas segment, and marking to market several of the drivers of our gas net asset value with recent comps from Noble, drives an incremental $4/share increase in value.” CONSOL Energy closed on Friday at $36.64.