UPDATE: Bank of America Upgrades Frontier Communications to Neutral on Dividend Commitment

Bank of America upgrades its rating on Frontier Communications FTR from Underperform to Neutral and raises its price objective from $3 to $3.50. Bank of America comments, "Since the close of the Verizon acquisition on July 1, 2010, Frontier has underperformed SPX by 85% due to multiple estimate misses in 2011, the February 15, 2012, dividend cut announcement, and growing concern about how the company would navigate to its leverage goals while supporting the remaining dividend. Management recently softened its stance regarding a stated goal of achieving 2.5x leverage by the end of 2014, increasing breathing room for the dividend and support for the equity story by extension." FTR closed at $3.33 on Thursday.