NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Liberty Media (LMCA)  are down 0.59% to $39.62 in afternoon trading on Thursday after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage with a "hold" rating and a $43 price target. 

"Our price target only implies 7% upside, which we find to be too limited, but we do point out that Liberty and its related companies have historically created significant value through making wise investments, effective capital allocation, financial engineering and tax structuring," Deutsche Bank noted about the media company. 

This potential but limited upside comes from two sources, a narrowing of the net asset value (NAV) discount to 7.5% from an estimated 12% and the upside implied by the price targets for Time Warner (TWX) ($100) and Viacom (VIAB) - Get Report ($83), the firm's analysts estimate.

Last year, Liberty attempted to merge with SiriusXM (SIRI) - Get Report, analysts said, adding that "Liberty Media has said it would consider another merger proposal under the right circumstances, and we see narrowing the NAV discount as the key to this."

Liberty Media focuses on the media, communications and entertainment industries through its ownership of interests in subsidiaries and other companies.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates LIBERTY MEDIA CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate LIBERTY MEDIA CORP (LMCA) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, expanding profit margins and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• LMCA's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 6.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 6.8%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• 48.04% is the gross profit margin for LIBERTY MEDIA CORP which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 6.66% trails the industry average.
• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.51, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Even though the company has a strong debt-to-equity ratio, the quick ratio of 0.42 is very weak and demonstrates a lack of ability to pay short-term obligations.
• Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Media industry and the overall market, LIBERTY MEDIA CORP's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• Net operating cash flow has declined marginally to $324.00 million or 6.62% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: LMCA Ratings Report