Bank of America Merrill Lynch Downgrading OpenTable

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with a research report on OpenTable, Inc. OPEN and it is downgrading shares to Neutral, and lowering its price objective to $48. In a note to clients, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "While we are making only modest changes to our long-term penetration model as 3Q restaurant metrics were mostly in-line, we are downgrading OpenTable to Neutral (from Buy) as we believe the stock will be range bound (an already large short interest may limit downside) as the Street digests 3Q results including: 1) lower seated diner growth trends; 2) the cancelation of Spotlight; 3) limited near term benefits from TopTable integration; 4) commentary on softer industry trends in October vs. September, but little clarity on what they could mean for OpenTable's growth." Shares of OPEN are down $5.10 in pre-market trading to $38.00, a loss of 11.83%.