UPDATE: Jefferies Lowering Price Target On Int'l Game Tech. (IGT)

Jefferies & Co. is lowering its price target on shares of Int'l Game Tech. IGT to $16 from $17, and it has a Hold rating on shares. In a note to investors, Jefferies writes, "While our view has been that our estimates for IGT and the Street's expectations for the company have been rationalized over the recent past, we believe the environment has remained pressured and a slightly more conservative stance is appropriate. As such, we reduce our estimates and remain conservative on the shares pending improvement in the company's core product momentum and reiterate our HOLD rating on the shares. With the recent estimate and guidance revisions for WMS and BYI over the recent past, we believe a slight estimate revision is prudent. We believe that our estimates for IGT, which had been flat through the remainder of the this year and next, could prove optimistic given the persistence of the weakness in demand for slot machines in the U.S. As such, we reduce our estimates for domestic slot sales for 2QFY11 to 4,313 from 5,260 and maintaining our international unit expectation of 4,700. For FY11 our unit expectation becomes 19,665 from 22,880 and our FY12 estimate is 22,500 versus 28,500. Consequently, our new EPS estimates for 2QFY11, FY11 and FY12 are $0.20, $0.85 and $1.05 vs. $0.22, $0.88 and $1.10." Shares of IGT lost 16 cents yesterday to close at $15.89, a loss of 1%.