Analyst downgrades: Banks, VDSI and RATE

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Certain banks, VASCO Data Security and Bankrate were today's noteworthy downgrades:

UBS downgraded shares of Discover (NYSE: DFS) and Capital One (NYSE: COF) to Sell from Neutral and American Express (NYSE: AXP) to Sell from Buy, as they believe a U.S.-led recession will lead to increased credit losses.
Jefferies downgraded shares of VASCO Data Security (NASDAQ: VDSI) to Hold from Buy to reflect the company's exposure to the financial services market, as they believe 2008 will be a tough year for small companies selling into tightening IT budgets.
Merriman lowered its rating on Bankrate (NASDAQ: RATE) to Neutral from Buy on valuation, as they believe the stock is pricing in upside from strong website traffic seen in January driven by refinance activity and Fed rate cuts. Citigroup downgraded shares to Hold from Buy on valuation, as they find the risk/reward less compelling at current levels.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

JP Morgan removed SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) from its Top 3 Picks List.
Goldman downgraded CSK Auto (NYSE: CAO) to Neutral from Buy and removed Google (GOOG) from its Conviction Buy List.
Baird lowered Comerica (NYSE: CMA) to Neutral from Outperform.

Tags: American Express, AmericanExpress, AXP, Bankrate, CAO, Capital One, CapitalOne, CMA, COF, Comerica, CSK Auto, CskAuto, DFS, Discover Financial, DiscoverFinancial, downgrades, GOOG, Google, RATE, SanDisk, SNDK, Vasco Data Security, VascoDataSecurity, VDSI