UPDATE: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Reiterates Underperform Rating, Raises PT on Virgin Media

In a report published Friday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch reiterated its Underperform rating on Virgin Media

, and slightly raised its price target from $24.00 to $25.00. BofA Merrill Lynch noted, “VMED has an excellent management team, focused on delivering FCF. The Bull Case is that VMED can drive increased revenue and cashflow (NB no tax leakage) using the cash to buyback shares. The Bear case is that this is a mature consumer-facing business (no RGU/sub growth in 2 years) which is facing structural threats in all 3 core products (fixed phone c.GBP 1bn of revenue and falling usage, broadband from BT's fibre rollout and TV from YouView). VMED has operational and financial leverage too.” Virgin Media closed on Thursday at $35.08.