UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Initiates Medical Properties Trust at Buy on Valuation

In a report published by Goldman Sachs, analyst Andrew Rosivach initiated coverage on Medical Properties Trust MPW with a Buy rating and a 12-month $17 price target. Goldman Sachs reported that, “We are initiating coverage of Medical Properties Trust with a Buy rating, relative to our Attractive healthcare coverage view, and a 12-month price target of $17 (17% upside including dividends). We believe a wide spread between acquisition yields and corporate cost of capital and a smaller current earnings base will support robust earnings growth despite limited contractual rent growth. We estimate that MPW's six-year AFFO growth of 83% will be 10th highest in all of our coverage (31 names total). Please note that we anticipate MPW's non-cash FFO growth rate will be roughly equal to its cash AFFO growth rate as the company rapidly increases straight-line rents from acquisitions.” Shares of Medical Properties Trust closed at $15.24 on Wednesday.