UPDATE: Dahlman Rose Upgrades Walter Energy to Buy on Met Coal Outlook

Dahlman Rose upgraded Walter Energy

with a Buy and lowers the price target from $44.00 to $43.00. Dahlman Rose said, "We are upgrading shares of WLT… to Buy from Hold based on an improving outlook of the global met coal market. In our view, recent global coking coal supply issues and spot market price improvement have provided an attractive entry point for the equities ahead of our expectation of an upward move in the commodity. That said, our bullish met coal call is not an earnings call. We are looking through what we expect to be tempered commentary from coal companies during the 4Q12 earnings season. Our call is predicated on what we see as a firming in coking coal prices off of a well-defined bottom – $165-170/metric ton FOB settlements over the last two quarters, and a subsequent gradual improvement in benchmark and spot pricing over the remainder of the year into 2014." Walter Energy closed at $38.62 on Tuesday.