Citi Reiterates Buy Rating On Sprint (S)

Citi believes Sprint S can still improve its operating scale through Network Vision and possibly Network hosting, emerge as the value based provider of wireless service within the industry with AT&T's T pending acquisition of T-Mobile USA, “and be a possible beneficiary of merger conditions and concessions if the deal gets approved.” Citi has reiterated its Buy rating on the company. “We met with Bob Azzi, Senior Vice President, Networks, and Yijing Brentano, VP, Investor Relations, and had an opportunity to discuss the company's network modernization and potential to host additional networks on its platforms,” Citi writes. “We still believe Sprint has an opportunity to significantly improve its network operating scale through the pending network modernization (dubbed Network Vision), while retaining option value to augment its scale with network hosting. We expect Sprint to decide whether or not to network host with Clearwire CLWR, LightSquared or both over the next few months.” Sprint closed Thursday at $4.56.