UPDATE: Citigroup Downgrades SVB Financial Group to Neutral on Valuation

Citigroup downgraded SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) from Buy to Neutral and raised the price target from $63.00 to $64.00.Citigroup noted, "SIVB is up ~18.5% since mid November while the BKX is up ~12.3% over the same period. Try as we might, we are unable to find a way to raise our target price enough such that SIVB would continue to warrant a Buy rating. Given that SIVB is currently trading at ~17.1x our '13 EPS estimate and ~16.0x our '14 EPS estimate, raising our target price by a material amount would require us to raise our estimates by a material amount. Given SIVB's already robust 20%+ loan growth and 15%+ fee growth, material earnings upside at this point would likely have to come from higher rates at the short-end of the yield curve."SVB Financial Group closed at $64.15 on Tuesday.