Jefferies LLC analyst Omotayo Okusanya initiated coverage ofHealthcare Trust of AmericaInc. with a rating of "buy," and a price target of $33.

The analyst wrote in a research report: "We view HTA asan attractive play given the balanced approach to internal and external growth.From an internal growth perspective, the focus on an in-house property managementteam and a more geographically concentrated portfolio should drive margin expansionvia economies of scale. We also see solid lease-up opportunity as HTA haslimited exposure to markets with meaningful supply issues. The key risk to ourBuy rating is the fairly large exposure to off-campus assets (some of which maybe negatively impacted by Section 603). We are also keeping an eye on theCommunity Health Systems (CYH) leases which are at risk of non-renewal uponexpiration in the next two years. Jefferies was a joint book runner on HTA'sfollow-on offering of 3.5M shares in Sept 2016."