Reasons for the sell-off included the mall REIT missingfourth-quarter earnings targets, mostly related to the $7.2-billionmerger with Rouse Co. in 2004, as well as a delay in filing areport with the Securities and Exchange Commission after taxaccounting issues were raised. In addition, an up-tick in interestrates affected General Growth Properties' stock price, as 26% ofthe company's debt is floating rate, the analysts say.

Helping drive the upgrade is the belief class A malls are morelikely to outperform lesser grade shopping centers, which could seea larger number of store closings by struggling retailers,according to Nussbaum and McElroy. "Specialty retailer squarefootage growth is expected to remain healthy, with 4% growth in2006," they say. "Highly-productive, market dominant malls shouldcapture most of this demand. Class A malls should be well insulatedfrom store closings."

General Growth Properties stock most recently closed at $46.34.The Bank of America analysts set $50 as a target. The stock pricehas fallen 9.1% in less than a month. At the same time, mall stockshave fallen 5% since the REIT market peak in late March, Nussbaumand McElroy note.