J.P. Morgan Downgrades Alliant Techsystems

In a report released this morning, J.P. Morgan has announced that is downgrading shares of Alliant Techsystems Inc.

to Neutral from Overweight. A recent rally has left ATK down only 3% since March 23, outperforming defense primes by 9%, J.P. Morgan reports. “We are taking the opportunity to revisit our thesis following this good relative performance,” J.P. Morgan writes. “We have grown more cautious on both the commercial ammo business and the defense margin environment in recent months, and we are incorporating weakening industry trends into our estimates.” Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan says that while it believes the stock was discounting too much risk to the NASA outlook in March, “we believe this issue has been largely resolved and the stock now reflects this.” Alliant Techsystems closed Friday at $78.19.