UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Raises PT to $40 on TIM Participacoes

Stifel Nicolaus increases its price target on Buy-rated TIM Participacoes (NYSE: TSU) from $32 to $40 as subscriber growth trends in line for the first quarter of 2012.

Stifel Nicolaus comments, "While March subscriber results have not yet been reported by ANATEL, quarterly subscriber growth for TSU appears to be trending in-line with our forecast. As of the February ANATEL report, TSU had added 1.83 million new wireless subscribers, increasing its market share by 16 bps to 26.62%. If trends hold, the company is on pace to report total subscriber growth in-line with our estimate of +3.1 million. We expect TSU to end 1Q12 with approximately 67.2 million total wireless subscribers (vs. 66 million as of February 2012)."

TSU closed at $$32.01 yesterday.