UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Initiates Life Time Fitness with Hold on Near-Term Price Movement

Stifel Nicolaus initiated its coverage on Life Time Fitness

with a Hold rating given the stock's recent outperformance, which limits upside in the near term. Stifel Nicolaus commented, "While there are several compelling components to the LTM story, we believe current valuation supports our Hold rating. … Over the past month, shares of LTM have widely outperformed the broader market, increasing 11% versus the S&P 500's increase of 2%. Following the sharp move higher, we believe shares are fairly valued, trading at 15x FY13E EPS of $3.17 and in line with the 5-year average forward PE multiple. Even if we were to apply a 15x multiple to our $3.67 FY14E EPS, we would arrive at a fair value of $55, which only represents upside of 18%. In our opinion this is not enough upside to currently justify a Buy rating." Life Time Fitness closed at $46.61 on Tuesday.