Morningstar’s Massive Takeover Target List

I have a treat for you guys today.  Morningstar has updated its M&A Insights Report from January and its fully loaded with actionable stuff.

First some key takeaways, then we'll look at some of the candidates themselves...

• As we alluded to in our January M&A Outlook report, 2011 has already brought an increase in game-changing deals, driven by improving credit market conditions, large cash balances, and increasing confidence among management teams. The improving global economy has already sparked a revival in transformational deals like AT&T's (T) $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA or Duke Energy's (DUK) $14 billion equity ($26 billion enterprise value) bid for Progress Energy (PGN).

• We believe there is plenty of debt capital capacity available at attractive terms to fund leveraged buyouts, which should lead to resurgence in M&A activity among private equity groups. We expect more than 50 public companies with enterprise values greater than $100 million to be taken private this year, with transactions reaching as large as $10-$15 billion.

• As a group, our takeover list from the January 20 report has thus far outperformed the broader market, and we've updated our list of M&A takeover candidates that we believe are the most attractively priced.

So which companies could find themselves on the receiving end of all that "available debt capital capacity"?

I was asked not to embed the entire PDF but I've carved out this list for you, click to embiggen as always:

The names listed include Akamai ($AKAM), Synovus ($SNV), Range Resources ($RRC) and American Eagle ($AEO).  Contact Morningstar for more of their research and insights.

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