Analyst downgrades: NCC, HST, PKTR and FTE

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Host Hotels, Packeteer and France Telecom were today's noteworthy downgrades:

Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Host Hotels (NYSE: HST) to Hold from Buy and lowered their target to $19 from $22.50 on a lack of near-term catalysts and industry headwinds. Note the firm also downgraded Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE: SHO), Strategic Hotels (NYSE: BEE) and DiamondRock Hospitality (NYSE: DRH) to Hold from Buy.
Merriman downgraded shares of Packeteer (NASDAQ: PKTR) to Neutral from Buy following the acquisition bid by Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ: BCSI) as they are not expecting additional suitors to emerge.
ABN Amro cut France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) to Hold from Buy as they see increased risk from the company's acquisitions strategy.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Keefe Bruyette downgraded Capitol Federal (NASDAQ: CFFN) to Underperform from Market Perform.
Omnicell (NASDAQ: OMCL) was lowered to Neutral from Strong Buy at Broadpoint.
National City (NYSE: NCC) was downgraded at Bear to Underperform from Outperform.

Tags: analyst, cffn, downgrade, france telecom, FranceTelecom, fte, host hotels, HostHotels, hst, national city, NationalCity, ncc, omcl, omnicell, packeteer, pktr