MOST NOTEWORTHY: First Data Corp (FDC), Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc (PNK), Cephalon, Inc (CEPH) and Verint Systems Inc (VRNT) were some of today's downgrades:
- UBS downgraded First Data Corp (NYSE: FDC) to Neutral from Buy following the acquisition by KKR.
- Pinnacle Entertainment (NYSE: PNK) was cut to Hold from Buy at Matrix USA, as the firm believes post-hurricane reconstruction efforts are leading to significant capital expenditures, which limits upside.
- Cephalon Inc (NASDAQ: CEPH) was removed from American Technology's Focus List with shares up 15% in three weeks as the approval of Nuvigil without a Black Box warning has passed.
- JP Morgan cut shares of Verint Systems (NASDAQ: VRNT) to Underweight from Neutral, citing risks and costs associated from the Witness Systems' (WITS) acquisition.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Labor Ready, Inc (NYSE: LRW) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman based on the slowdown in U.S. residential construction activity.
- JP Morgan downgraded Icagen, Inc (NASDAQ: ICGN) to Neutral from Overweight.
- Friedman Billings cut CompuDyne Corp (NASDAQ: CDCY) to Market Perform from Outperform following Q4 results.
Analyst summaries provided by
TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).
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