MOST NOTEWORTHY: Sierra Pacific (SRP), Intersil (ISIL), Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Sierra Pacific (NYSE: SRP) to Hold from Buy on valuation and uncertainty over the company's Integrated Resource Plan investment program.
- Jefferies downgraded shares of Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL) to Hold from Buy and lowered their target to $30 from $38 after their Asia channel checks indicated the first wave of cancellations for PWM ICs from the leading Taiwan Motherboard manufacturers.
- Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) were lowered to Neutral from Buy at UBS, citing credit pressures that will likely require increased reserves.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- First Marblehead (NYSE: FMD) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings.
- The firm also downgraded Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY) to Market Perform from Outperform.
- Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) was lowered to Market Perform from Outperform at Wachovia.