Needham & Company Upgrades Time Warner Cable (TWC) to Hold

Needham & Company upgraded Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) from Underperform to Hold amid the Charter $195/share takeover bid.

Analyst Laura Martin commented, "We are upgrading TWC to HOLD from Underperform owing to the announced Charter bid of $195/share for TWC. We thought the Charter bid would take longer and be lower than the consensus view because we couldn’t identify another bidder. We should have thought more globally. When Altice joined the stage as a stalking horse at $150-160/share, the price Charter was willing to pay for TWC rose, as did their urgency. We calculate that TWC’s current trading price is about 5% below the announced deal price. We believe closing will take longer -- probably a 1Q16 closing, not 4Q15. Can Charter get this deal through DC? The best datapoint for “yes” is likely the $2B breakup fee that Charter will pay TWC if they can’t. By implication, TWC shareholders are largely protected from regulatory risk."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Time Warner Cable click here. For more ratings news on Time Warner Cable click here.

Shares of Time Warner Cable closed at $183.60 yesterday.

You May Also Be Interested In

• Nlight (LASR) PT Raised to $90 at Needham after DoW contract
• Byrna Technologies Inc. (BYRN) PT Lowered to $12 at B.Riley
• AeroVironment (AVAV) PT Lowered to $240 at Canaccord