Credit Suisse Upgrading Dean Foods

Credit Suisse is upgrading shares of Dean Foods Company DF to Neutral and keeping the price target at $10. In a note to clients, Credit Suisse writes, "We are upgrading Dean to Neutral (from Underperform) as we see less risk of further deterioration in FDD margins and more balanced risk-reward in the stock. That said, we think the outlook for 2012 looks grimmer than before due to the negative impact of declining volume on Dean's high fixed cost operating model. We are keeping our 2011 estimate unchanged at $0.68 but we lowering 2012 by $0.04 to $0.76. Our 2013 EPS estimate is also lowered to $0.87 from $0.89. We lower our target price to $10 (from $11), which implies a 13x PE against our 2012 estimate." Shares of DF closed at $9.20 yesterday.