UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Downgrades IAMGOLD Corporation to Hold on Guidance

Stifel Nicolaus downgraded IAMGOLD Corporation

from Buy to Hold and removed the price target of $14.50. Stifel Nicolaus commented, "While we realized that IAG shares would be in the "penalty box" following the surprise 2013 production guidance cut in November, we were again disappointed by management's guidance towards sharply higher operating costs Tuesday night. While we had factored in 20% YoY cost escalation, our estimates turned out to be too low as the impacts of industry-wide inflation, lower grades, harder ore and the Westwood buildup resulted in cost guidance of $850-925/oz up from $695/oz, the top end of guidance, in 2012. More importantly, management of IAMGOLD has done an insufficient job managing analyst and investor expectations as we believe many were caught more offside than we were." IAMGOLD Corporation closed at $9.23 on Wednesday.