UPDATE: Deutsche Bank Upgrades Entergy to Buy Following Proposed ITC Holdings Transaction

In a report published Monday, Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Arnold upgraded the rating on Entergy ETR from Hold to Buy, and raised the price target from $66.00 to $74.00.

In the report, Deutsche Bank noted, “We are upgrading our rating to Buy from Hold as we reflect some of the value we see from the proposed ITC Holdings transaction in our price target and raise our standalone ETR estimates to reflect higher New York capacity prices and estimated Human Capital Management (HCM) initiative cost reductions. While our Buy rating is premised upon meaningful upside should the transaction with ITC close ($11/sh or ~21% TSR), we also see decent total return at current levels on a standalone basis ($1/sh or 6% TSR).”

Entergy closed on Friday at $68.19.