UPDATE: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Raises PO on Equity Lifestyle Properties to $67

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with its report today on Equity LifeStyle Properties ELS, raising its PO from $63 to $67. In a note to clients, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "ELS announced plans to acquire a $1.3B portfolio of 76 communities and $170M of manufactured homes and loans from Hometown America, a private owner and operator. In our view, the overall quality of sites, operating metrics and margins are similar to ELS's current portfolio and the purchase is in line with ELS's strategy. Pro forma for the acquisition, we are raising our PO to $67 from $63 and increasing 2011E FFO to $3.99 from $3.85 and 2012E to $4.36 from $4.11." At the time of posting, shares of ELS were trading pre-market at $62.01, down 0.88% from Thursday's close.