UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Downgrading MB Financial, Cutting Price Target (MBFI)

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is downgrading shares of MB Financial MBFI to Neutral from Overweight, but is leaving its $23 price target. In a note to investors, J.P. Morgan writes, "In our 2011 Stockpicker's Guide we highlighted MBFI as our top pick for 2011. At the time, we viewed the bank as attractively positioned to benefit from credit normalization, organic growth, and M&A. While our fundamental call on MB remains intact, given the sharp rally in MBFI shares thus far in 2011, upside potential to our Dec 2011 $23 price target is now in line with peers, warranting us to downgrade the stock from Overweight to Neutral. With the shares now trading in line with peers on a P/TBV basis, the valuation of the stock appears to now be more fully anticipating an improvement in credit in the remainder of 2011. Although we didn't expect to be downgrading our top pick for 2011 to Neutral so early in the year, given that the shares have now outperformed the Nasdaq Bank Index by 22% YTD and outperformed the S&P 500 by 16%, we would take advantage of the run in the stock to lock in profits. Replacing MB as our new top pick is Comerica (CMA) trading at 1.3x TBV." Shares of MBFI lost 43 cents on Friday to close at $21.01, a loss of 2%.