UPDATE: SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Initiates Coverage on Yahoo! with Neutral Rating, $31 PT on Continued Turnaround

In a report published Tuesday, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Robert S. Peck initiated coverage on Yahoo! YHOO with a Neutral rating and $31.00 price target. In the report, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey noted, “We are initiating coverage of Yahoo! with a Neutral rating and a $31 2014 year end price target. Our target assumes an $80b valuation of the Alibaba asset and a 6.5x EBITDA multiple for the Yahoo! core. Yahoo! has approximately $18.7b of noncore assets ($5.8 Alibaba @ IPO, $7.4b Alibaba post-IPO, $5.5B Yahoo! Japan). Subtracting this from the current estimated enterprise value of $25.2b for Yahoo!, implies the core business is trading at $6.2b or ~3.7x 2013 EBITDA. Investors have a wide value range on Alibaba, which will impact valuation.” Yahoo! closed on Monday at $27.34.