UPDATE: Sterne Agee Downgrades Sonic Corporation to Neutral on Balanced Risk/Reward

In a report published Friday, Sterne Agee analyst Lynne Collier downgraded the rating on Sonic Corporation SONC from Buy to Neutral. In the report, Collier noted, “We are downgrading shares of SONC from BUY to Neutral as we believe that shares are fully valued at current levels given an appreciation of ~48% over the last 12 months. While we remain optimistic that the company can generate low-single-digit SSS and low-double-digit EPS growth over the intermediate term, we believe that the risk/reward is fairly balanced. Shares of SONC are presently trading at 17.6x our FY13 EPS estimate (vs. 3-yr historical P/E of ~14.7x) and ~8.7x on an EV/EBITDA basis.” Sonic Corporation closed on Thursday at $11.93.