S&P has a”strong buy”ranking on the American depositary receipts of Shanda Interactive Entertainment and makes it the Focus Stock of the Week:

From Standard&Poor’s Equity Research, Shanda Interactive Entertainment is an interactive entertainment media company, and a diversified leader in a large and growing market. China is the world’s largest online gaming market, and Shanda generates more revenues from online gaming than any other company. Shanda offers many different games in different categories, owns PC and mobile gaming platforms, is building an in-game advertising business, and is home to China’s most popular original literature portal. The company’s past success has provided it with notable resources to bolster its game pipeline and build out other operations, by its analysis.

In addition, it believes the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games could very well be a positive catalyst for the company and its American depositary receipts (ADRs). Initially, the eyes of the world will be on China, and we think that people will come to learn more about what we consider its compelling national growth prospects and perhaps seek out related U.S-traded investment opportunities.  S&P also believes Shanda could benefit from government-mandated actions restricting business operations and driving that could increase consumption of the company’s offerings in homes and local Internet cafes.

S&P thinks Shanda trades at a compelling valuation. The ADRs carry Standard&Poor’s highest investment recommendation of 5 STARS (strong buy) and a $40 12 month target.

Track the Focus Stocks of the  Week at:

http://trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=1348