UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades Hallmark Financial to Neutral (HALL)

Piper Jaffray is out with its report today on Hallmark Financial HALL, downgrading HALL from Overweight to Neutral. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "Hallmark's first quarter results reflect an increasingly difficult to manage Florida book of non-standard auto business and clearly suggest the rate of growth to be too much too soon, in our opinion. An operating loss of $0.60 per share surprised to the downside and included a book of business likely not only to disappoint in 2011 but to set limitations on HALL's ability to generate a profit over the next 12 months. With little transparency to the upside, we revised our earnings for 2011 lower and take our rating to Neutral from Overweight." Piper Jaffray lowers its PT on HALL from $10 to $7.50. Shares of HALL closed Friday at $7.05, down 1.81% from Thursday's close.