J.P. Morgan Maintains Neutral on Kimco Realty

J.P. Morgan is out with its report today on Kimco Realty KIM, maintaining Neutral. In a note to clients, J.P. Morgan writes, "Over the past few quarters we have become more constructive on KIM as evidenced by our January 2011 upgrade to Neutral. However, the company still faces some near-term earnings headwinds, in our view. On the positive side, KIM's occupancy and pricing power have improved and should drive positive comp NOI growth in 2011. Additionally, the lease-up of its development assets are providing another avenue of growth as conditions continue to improve. Offsetting these positives though are two items: 1) we generally prefer more economically leveraged property types at this point in the cycle, and 2) the company's near-term disposition plans will likely be a bit of an earnings headwinds … albeit less than we previously expected." Shares of KIM closed Tuesday at $19.99, down 0.25% from Monday's close.