UPDATE: Jefferies Lowering Price Target On USEC Inc. (USU)

Jefferies & Co. has a Hold rating and a $5.25 price target on shares of USEC Inc. USU, down from $5.50.

In a note to clients, Jefferies writes, "USEC is building the American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) to help meet current demand from the 440 nuclear reactors worldwide (104 in the U.S.). As a prerequisite to providing a $2bn loan guarantee, the U.S. DOE has required USEC to demonstrate its ability to secure excess project financing. USEC has initiated discussions with Japanese export credit agencies for ~$1bn, but this investment (and the remaining 2 phases of Toshiba and B&W's $200m) are largely dependent upon the DOE's conditional commitment. USEC has not spoken with the export credit agencies since the earthquake. USEC estimates ~$2.8bn will be needed to complete the project for a total cost of ~$4.75bn."

Shares of USU are down 39 cents in pre-market trading to $4.20, a loss of 8.5%.