Gilford Securities Has Buy Rating On Entercom Communications (ETM)

Gilford Securities has a Buy rating and a $15 price target on shares of Entercom Communications Corp.

. In a note sent to clients, Gilford writes, "The popular car web site, Autobytel, recently revealed a remarkable amount, 83% of the public may buy an auto in 2011. 44% said they're looking now. 22% will be in the market in 6 mo., with 16% looking in 6-12 mo. The last 4 quarters have seen 9% ($341MM), 39% ($231MM), 26% ($336MM) and 19% ($366MM) for Q4'09A, Q1'10A, Q2'10A and Q3'10A, respectively. If the actual and prospective foot traffic even partially reflects Autobytel's level, the car companies and dealers are likely to pour large amounts into radio ads. Our proprietary data for over 50 markets surprised us with a 12% yr./ yr. increase in Oct. Similarly, Nov. was also surprisingly robust at 10% with only 2 days of political. We had been expecting 6% for Nov. Add in ETM's remark that rates are firming up, and that bodes well for radio industry's 2011E. We're boosting our Target to $15 based on 8.4x ‘11E EBITDA compared to 8.6% CAGR for ‘10E-‘12E EBITDA."