UPDATE: Wedbush Upgrades Time Warner to Outperform on Margin and Risk Improvement

Wedbush upgraded Time Warner TWX from Neutral to Outperform and raised the price target from $44.00 to $60.00. Wedbush commented, "[W]hile we continue to see fewer big-ticket catalysts in front of TWX than for some peers, we see a host of drivers that together should improve the shares' reward/risk ratio, including 1) a good – and per our proprietary surveys, improving - position for subscription fee growth in the next carriage cycle at Turner and over the longer term at HBO, 2) long-term visibility on much Networks programming expense – highlighted most recently by HBO's renewal of film output deals with Fox and Universal, and 3) signs that management's eyes are still more on capital return than big-ticket M&A, as befits a company with leading scale in all its business lines. At 2.4x LTM net EBITDA leverage, just under its 2.5x target, TWX sits at the sweet spot of financial flexibility, further enhancing its reward/risk profile." Time Warner closed at $52.01 on Wednesday.