Goldman Downgrading Graham Packaging Company (GRM)

Goldman Sachs is downgrading shares of Graham Packaging Company Inc. (NYSE: GRM) to Neutral and it has a $24 price target on shares.

In a note to clients, Goldman writes, "We are downgrading Graham Packaging (GRM) shares to Neutral from Buy as we see less upside to our 12-month price target for GRM (+4%) vs. our Specialty Packaging coverage (+9%). GRM shares have rallied +37.7% since 4/13/2011 vs. the S&P 500 +2.5% when Silgan (SLGN) announced it will acquire GRM; the deal is expected to close in 3Q2011. Our downgrade of GRM shares is not in relation to a view on the announced transaction, but on less upside to price target vs. our coverage group. Since upgrading GRM shares on 1/18/2011, the stock is +54.8% vs. the S&P 500 +4.0%; over the past 12-months, GRM shares are +84.5% vs. S&P 500 +11.2%."

Shares of GRM lost 10 cents yesterday to close at $23.01, a loss of 0.4%.