UPDATE: Stifel Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on General Growth Properties on Strong Portfolio

In a report published Tuesday, Stifel analyst Nathan Isbee reiterated a Buy rating on

, and raised the price target from $25.00 to $26.00. In the report, Stifel noted, “GGP's high quality, high productivity portfolio is generating strong growth and should for the foreseeable future, in our view. There is a long list of retailers looking to add space in GGP's portfolio, allowing the REIT to drive rents. While growing e-commerce sales over the last 12 months have dominated the headlines, same-store sales increased 60 bps and total sales (less anchors) grew 3.1%, demonstrating people are still shopping at malls. We note this is the first quarter GGP reported total sales which includes larger format retailers. While retailer fall out is likely over the next few years, in our view, the outlook is bright for high productivity malls and these centers should take market share and grow sales. We maintain our Buy rating on GGP and increase our target price to $26 based on our NAV estimate at a 5.25% cap rate.” General Growth Properties closed on Monday at $24.12.