Barclays Upgrades Whole Foods On Potential For Bidding War

As previously reported, Barclays analyst Karen Short upgraded Whole Foods (WFM) to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised her price target on the stock to $48 from $38, telling investors that she would not be surprised to see a bidding war break out following Amazon's (AMZN) announcement of a takeover agreement.

Short, who thinks a strategic retail buyer would generate up to $600M in synergies from a deal to buy Whole Foods, said bidders could include Kroger (KR), Target (TGT), and Wal-Mart (WMT), all of which may "have too much to lose not to bid."