AOL Initiated At Buy On Video Ads Potential

AOL has been lining its advertising ducks in a row since separating from Time Warner in 2009 -- and one analyst is predicting a big payoff. Monness Crespi Hardt analyst James Cakmak initiated coverage on AOL Monday with a buy rating and $67 price target. He called the media conglomerate the "future of advertising" due to its investments in online video ads and said the company is now "uniquely positioned" to maximize its exposure to them. He believes AOL will start seeing "meaningful accruals" on its advertising investments beginning in 2015 with the launch of ONE by AOL, the company's new enterprise ad product. However, he doesn't see AOL surpassing competitors Google and Facebook in the online ads space. Shares of AOL slumped 1.1% to $45.64 Monday despite the report. They are up just 2.4% over the last 12 months.

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