Publishing giant The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (MHP) on Thursday caught some bullish commentary from analysts at The Benchmark Company.

The firm upgraded MHP from “Hold” to “Buy” with a $53 price target, suggesting a 21% upside to the stock’s Wednesday closing price of $43.89.

A Benchmark analyst commented, “Upgrades to reflect strong growth prospects of McGraw-Hill’s financial operations and the stock’s discount to estimated break up value following separation of McGraw-Hill Education from McGraw Hill’s financial operations.”

Continuing, “For 2013, we project total revenues of $6.9 billion, up 7%, led by growth at S&P Ratings and Capital IQ with some improvement in Education and further growth at Commodities and Commercial. We project EPS to advance to $3.71, up 11%.”

McGraw-Hill shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Thursday.

The Bottom Line
Shares of McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP) have a 2.32% dividend yield, based on last night’s closing stock price of $43.89. The stock has technical support in the $39-$40 price area. If the shares can firm up, we see overhead resistance around the $46-$48 price levels.

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (MHP) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks, as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here.