UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades AK Steel to Underperform

According to Bank of America, AK Steel

is downgraded to Underperform. Bank of America said that it is downgrading AKS to Underperform from Neutral as it sees a high likelihood of the company issuing debt or equity soon to support pension and vertical integration costs. “We lower our price objective to $9 from $9.50, which uses a blended 9.4x 2012E and 8x 2013E EV/EBITDA, vs a historical forward 8.9x EV/EBITDA over the past 10 years and 9.4x over the past 3 yrs. Potential positives are short covering given 21.5% of the float was short in mid Jan and relief if it opts not to issue equity.” AK Steel closed yesterday at $9.57.