Benzinga's Top Downgrades With Color for May 8, 2012

Listed below are today's Top Downgrades at Benzinga:

: Hudson Square Research said, "Yesterday evening, EA reported 4Q revenues and EPS slightly above expectations, while Star Wars subs fell materially, making guidance difficult to achieve we believe – Downgrade to Hold. Solid Mass Effect 3 sales offset a weak market driving revenues to $977M – down 2% Y/Y but above our $950M est. Lower than expected R&D helped drive PF-EPS to $0.17 vs. our $0.15 est. Active Star Wars subs fell from 1.7M to 1.3M, suggesting our 3M FY13 forecast was directionally wrong."

: Bank of America said, "FX reported a solid 1Q result that beat expectations, but we are increasingly concerned that activity could retreat given recent Euro concerns, and mgmt. confirmed that 2Q volumes are tracking lower than March levels (but still up YoY). Given the retreat in client activity and growing Macro risks, we are taking a more conservative view on activity for the rest of the year, but offset with lower expenses, so our forecast remains $0.80. Note that we view non-cash stock compensation as a real ongoing expense and do not adjust for this in valuing FX."

: Bank of America commented, "Last week, Synacor (SYNC) was featured in two public stock newsletters. Since being featured, SYNC has experienced heavy trading volume and the stock has increased 48% from $8.84 on May 1st to $13.10 today. Our Buy rating was predicated on the thesis SYNC was an undervalued growth play but with the stock trading at 12x our 2013 EV/EBITDA estimate vs media peers at 8x, we are downgrading to Underperform."

: Bank of America said, "The biggest change to our sentiment is less conviction in ACM's premium execution following larges misses on operating margins. The stock's multiple is likely to stay compressed until we get more conviction on margins being under control. Muted organic growth due to ~40% exposure to challenged US public spending relative to other E&C names will likely exacerbate any margin shortfall."

: Imperial Capital commented in the report, "National CineMedia, Inc. (NCMI) is a holding company that owns 48.6% in National CineMedia, LLC (NCM), an operating company that sells advertising and distributes entertainment programming to theater operators, as well as meeting and communication services to corporate clients and consumers. NCM generated revenues of $443.7mn, adjusted OIBDA of $225.5mn, and diluted EPS of $0.58 during the latest twelve months (LTM) ended 3/29/12. As of that date, NCM and NCMI had approximately $9 and $74mn in cash, respectively (incl. marketable securities)."