Atlantic Equities Initiates Coverage of Ameriprise Financial (AMP) With Overweight Rating

Atlantic Equities analyst Alan Devlin initiated coverage of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP) with a rating of Overweight and a price target of $53.

According to the Atlantic Equities analyst, Ameriprise Financial has the greatest return on equity among its peers and will probably be one of the first insurers to start buying back stock.

Devlin said that investors are increasingly seeing Ameriprise Financial as an asset management company as it increases the proportion of its earnings that come from asset management and financial advisory.

Devlin said, "we believe the acquisition of Columbia Asset Management from Bank of America (expected to close in the next few months), is a hugely significant transaction for Ameriprise, which will not only transform Ameriprise’s business mix towards higher value asset management / financial advisory operations, but will also allow Ameriprise to deliver best in class ROE improvement versus peers."