Sterne Agee Downgrading Glacier Bancorp

Sterne Agee is out with a research report on Glacier Bancorp GBCI and it is downgrading shares to Neutral. In a note to clients, Sterne Agee writes, "We are lowering GBCI to Neutral from Buy, as we have lower conviction the shares will outperform peers over the next year via regaining a significant premium valuation. After considering the fundamentals heading into 2012, we are less optimistic on loan growth and overall revenue prospects. Also, we continue to believe asset quality trends will improve, but we consider the timeline to be potentially more lengthy than previously estimated. We are revising our estimates for FY12 and FY13 to $0.92 per share (-$0.09) and $1.03 per share (-$0.15), respectively." Shares of GBCI closed at $11.81 yesterday.