UPDATE: Bank of America Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on Exxon Mobil Corporation Following 1Q14 Earnings Recap

In a report published Friday, Bank of America analyst Doug Leggate reiterated a Buy rating on

, and raised the price target from $110.00 to $114.00. In the report, Bank of America noted, “While one proverbial swallow does not make a summer, ExxonMobil's 1Q14 earnings held several positive signals that we believe can start the sustained improvement in unit margins that has been absent for the past several years. Headline earnings beat on strong upstream but this also explains a step up in cash flow. Undoubtedly, a major factor this quarter was commodity strength as it has been for others: but specifically strong Canadian differentials that we now view as sustainable vs benchmarks underpinned strong unit cash margins from Kearl. However this is only the first of a 1mmbpd churn in the portfolio through 2017 that we believe will substantially improve average unit margins for the portfolio as a whole.” Exxon Mobil Corporation closed on Thursday at $101.41.