J.P. Morgan Neutral On SL Green Realty

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has a Neutral rating and a $60 price target on shares of SL Green Realty Corp. SLG. In a note sent to investors J.P. Morgan writes, "SLG's management team remains optimistic that the New York City leasing market will continue to improve. The company cited a number of data points to support its view. First, New York has already seen positive job growth since the market bottomed, to the tune of about 25k jobs (just 7k of which were financial jobs); this compares favorably to the last downturn in which job growth was almost nonexistent from 2002-2004. Looking forward, the company expects another 10-20k jobs next year, which could shave 100-150 bps off the overall Midtown Manhattan vacancy rate (around 10.5% currently). With this backdrop, management expects market rents to increase 5-8% in 2011, its NYC portfolio occupancy to increase 130 bps, and to sign at least 1.7 million sf of leases in 2011." Shares of SLG gained $1.14 yesterday to close at $67.03, a gain of 1.73%.