MOST NOTEWORTHY: Ethanol producers Novacea, Inc. (NOVC) and Aimco (AIV) were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Banc of America downgraded shares of Andersons Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDE) to Neutral from Buy, as well as VeraSun Energy (NYSE: VSE), Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ: PEIX) and Aventine Renewable Energy (NYSE: AVR) to Sell from Neutral. The firm believes new ethanol supply will depress ethanol's premium to gasoline, drive corn prices higher and pressure distillers' grains values.
- Novacea Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVC) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns based on valuation and lack of catalysts until 2H08; the firm believes the company's deal with Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) is a positive.
- Aimco Properties (NYSE: AIV) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Lehman, as the firm does not view AIV as an attractive takeover target.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).
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