MOST NOTEWORTHY: Bank of America, Entercom Comm and Opnext were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Morgan Stanley downgraded Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to Underweight from Equal Weight as they believe the company may need to raise an additional $12B in capital in Q4 and cut its dividend by 20%.
- Citigroup cut Entercom Comm (NYSE:ETM) to Sell from Hold as they see near-term downside risk for radio stocks given the weaker economic backdrop and underperforming radio ad spend. The firm lowered their target to $5 from $9.75.
- Merriman downgraded Opnext (NASDAQ:OPXT) to Neutral from Buy following the acquisition of Stratalight, as they believe the deal is too stock heavy given the current valuation and has concerns about competition in the 40G market.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Columbia Banking (NASDAQ:COLB) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette.
- Deutsche Bank cut Luxottica (NYSE:LUX) to Hold from Buy. Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) was lowered at Merrill to Underperform from Neutral.