Citi Sees Strong Growth In Legg Mason Shares (LM)

Citi Investment Research sees potential for Legg Mason LM to hit $44 in one year, and has put a Buy rating on shares of the money manager. In the research note Citi says, "Combo of inflecting attrition; improving margins; active capital management; and compelling valuation drive our contrarian call. High "misery" index of few Buy ratings and high short interest also encouraging. In this note, we scrutinize fixed income trends, a major attrition source since 2007. Our incremental analysis suggests outsized attrition is about to positively inflect, consistent with recent management commentary, thus removing a major headwind from the overall flow story which has helped to collapse LM's valuation." Shares of LM gained 38 cents or 1.3% yesterday to close at $29.44.