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Credit Suisse Downgrades Kellogg (K) to Neutral

December 7, 2016 6:29 AM EST
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Price: $54.77 +2.26%

Rating Summary:
    8 Buy, 24 Hold, 0 Sell

Rating Trend: = Flat

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 20 | Down: 14 | New: 22
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Credit Suisse downgraded Kellogg (NYSE: K) from Outperform to Neutral with a price target of $77.00 (from $84.00), saying weak top lines keeps a lid on valuation.

Analyst Robert Moskow commented, "We are downgrading Kellogg stock to Neutral and lowering our target price to $77/share. As we had hoped for when we upgraded the stock last year, the management team took on a greater sense of urgency to accelerate its margin targets and cost savings programs to adapt to a slower growth environment and perhaps pre-empt an unwelcome bid from a strategic acquirer. However, the company's revenue growth rate continued to under-punch its peers due to ongoing pressure in the breakfast cereal category (45% of sales) and companyspecific problems in wholesome snacks (about 7% of sales). We believe that consensus estimates for revenue growth and EPS need to go lower to reflect continued challenges for those businesses as well as currency headwinds that we estimate at $0.11/share. As a result, we expect the stock to perform in-line with its peer group in 2017 with only 6% EPS growth and a continued valuation discount relative to consumer peers."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Kellogg click here. For more ratings news on Kellogg click here.

Shares of Kellogg closed at $71.97 yesterday.



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