UPDATE: Oppenheimer Downgrades CEVA to Perform, Removes PT to Reflect Near-/Medium-Term Challenges

In a report published Tuesday, Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz downgraded the rating on

from Outperform to Perform, and removed the $24.00 price target. In the report, Oppenheimer noted, “We downgrade CEVA to Perform and lower our 2013 and 2014 revenues/EPS estimates to reflect near- and medium-term challenges the company is facing. We believe 3Q13 smartphone sales may lead to lower-than-expected 4Q guidance. Longer term, we believe CEVA's key customer, Spreadtrum, is losing share to MediaTek and Qualcomm due to its struggling dual-core platform and rapid time-to-market of its competitors' quadcore offerings. We believe consumer expectations and market dynamics have turned ever more negative for CEVA's customers in China. Thus, we downgrade CEVA from Outperform to Perform and revise our estimate to below-consensus levels.” CEVA closed on Monday at $14.12.