MOST NOTEWORTHY: BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP), Anglo American plc (AAUK), Shuffle Master, Inc (SHFL), KLA-Tencor Corp (KLAC), and Hershey Foods (HSY) were today's notable downgrades:
- Citigroup cut both BHP Billiton Ltd (NYSE: BHP) and Anglo American ADR (NASDAQ: AAUK) to Hold from Buy.
- Shuffle Master Inc (NASDAQ: SHFL) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman based on valuation and near-term challenges.
- RBC cut KLA-Tencor Corp (NASDAQ: KLAC) to Sector Perform from Outperform citing valuation, concerns related to June order expectations, a slowdown in operating expense reduction and long-term concerns related to process control spending.
- JP Morgan downgraded shares of Hershey Foods Co (NYSE: HSY) to Underweight from Neutral on valuation and concerns about the company's restructuring plan.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Keefe Bruyette downgraded Ameriprise Financial, Inc (NYSE: AMP) to Market Perform from Outperform, citing valuation.
- Merriman cut ValueClick, Inc's (NASDAQ: VCLK) rating to Neutral from Buy as the firm believes Google's (GOOG) acquisition of DoubleClick clouds VCLK's long-term prospects.
- UBS downgraded Supervalu Inc (NYSE: SVU) to Reduce from Neutral based on deteriorated sales trends.
- Morgan Stanley downgraded Southern Copper Corp (NYSE: PCU) to Underweight from Equal Weight based on valuation and a potential miss to Q1 expectations.
- Goldman removed Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE: FCX) from its Conviction Buy List, citing valuation.
Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).
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