Bank of America Merrill Lynch Discovers IAC InterActive Presentation

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with a research report on IAC InterActive IACI after the company presented at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Technology Conference. It has a Buy rating and a $39 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "IAC CEO Greg Blatt had an upbeat presentation at the BofAML Tech Conference, highlighting IAC's growth drivers in the personals and search businesses. The company continues to see growth in search from B2C product innovation and new toolbar partners, while personals has potential for mid-to-high teens revenue growth and even higher profit growth. Mr. Blatt sees an opportunity for better operational execution as CEO, while former CEO Mr. Diller will still focus on maximizing value of IAC's assets." BAML goes on to say, "We are maintaining our Buy rating and $39 price objective based on 5x for Search, 6x for ServicMagic and 9x for Personals + $12 in cash and other assets. Given strength of subscriber models on the Web, we see most long-term growth upside and multiple expansion potential for the Personals business." Shares of IACI lost 20 cents yesterday to close at $36.71, a loss of 0.54%.