UPDATE: Bank Of America Reiterates On Universal Health Services On Impressive Beat And Raise

In a report published Friday, Bank of America analyst Kevin Fischbeck reiterated a Buy rating on Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS), and raised the price target from $106.00 to $113.00.In the report, Bank of America noted, “EPS of $1.51 beat consensus/our est by $0.26 / $0.16 with $0.09 coming from additional TX reimbursement ($0.06 related to prior period). All Acute segment metrics were impressive and while UHS did not quantify the Reform benefit in the quarter or update the full year Reform outlook, the results suggest that Reform benefits accelerated and the core business was strong as well. UHS raised 2014 EPS guidance by $0.75 to $5.55-5.85."After adjusting for the additional TX revs and the Q1 beat, it appears the $0.17 Q2 beat (ex. TX item) is flowing through to 2H14 (2H outlook raised by $0.31). On top of the strong results, UHS doubled its dividend and announced a new share repo (up from prior) indicating a more aggressive deployment of capital. UHS's strong quarters on the heels of HCA's positive preannouncement is another positive sign for the group broadly and strong pysch results are a good data point of ACHC. We are raising our 2014/15/16E EPS to $5.85/$6.39/$6.57 from $5.23/$6.04/$6.27 and raising our PO to $113 from $106.”Universal Health Services closed on Thursday at $97.54.