UPDATE: JP Morgan Upgrades US Airways Group to Overweight on Merger Value Portion, Sell-Off

JP Morgan upgraded US Airways Group LCC from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $18.00 to $18.50. JP Morgan commented, "Last month, we downgraded LCC from OW to Neutral, believing shares adequately reflected a pending merger with LCC's value portion not expected to top 27%. Two things have happened since: LCC's value portion emerged at 28% and shares sold off modestly (-12% from the recent 8-Jan-13 peak vs. S&P 500 +3.9%) as some chose to short LCC as a hedge on AMR credit. While there are no changes to our model, the blend of 28% value, 5.2x stand-alone EV/EBITDAR and 7x P/E nudges our price target from $18 to $18.50 and our rating rises to Overweight." US Airways Group closed at $13.33 on Wednesday.