Wells Fargo upgrades NII Holdings, shares rise

Wells Fargo upgrades NII Holdings on strong subscriber trends in Brazil, Mexico; shares rise

• On 2:46 pm EDT, Tuesday September 8, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of NII Holdings Inc., which provides wireless services in Latin America, jumped in afternoon trading Tuesday after Wells Fargo Securities upgraded it to "Outperform" from "Market Perform."

Subscriber trends in Mexico are improving after a slow down in economic activity related to the swine flu, wrote analyst Gary Powell in a research note, and Brazil customer growth is accelerating.

He thinks NII will add a net 310,000 subscriptions in the current quarter, above Wall Street estimates of 293,000, he said, and the company can meet or exceed Wall Street analysts' subscriber expectations for the year.

Further, there is a chance that NII could acquire a block of Mexican spectrum cheaply, which would be a catalyst for the stock, Powell said.

NII stock gained $1.29, or 5.3 percent, to $25.69 in afternoon trading.