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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Royal Dutch Shell, Citigroup, American Financial and Cognos were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) to Neutral from Outperform based on valuation as analyst estimates now look about right, removing a potential catalyst.
- Banc of America downgraded shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) to Neutral from Buy and lowered their target to $39 from $45 given the eroding confidence in the company's earnings and book value.
- American Financial (NYSE: AFR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS and to Market Perform from Outperform at Friedman Billings following its acquisition by Gramercy Capital Corp (NYSE: GKK).
- CIBC downgraded Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN) to Sector Performer from Outperformer based on takeover valuation premium and FX headwinds.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Goldman removed Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) from its Conviction Buy List.
- Merrill downgraded AMBAC Financial (NYSE: ABK) to Neutral from Buy.
- Morgan Stanley downgraded the hardlines and softlines retail sectors to Cautious from In Line; the firm also downgraded Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) to Equal Weight from Overweight and Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) to Underweight from Equal Weight.
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