Jefferies Has Hold On Supervalu (SVU)

Jefferies & Co. has a Hold rating and a $9.50 price target on shares of Supervalu SVU. In a note to clients, Jefferies writes, "We conducted another supermarket store managers' survey which revealed some further weakening in business trends. Moreover, Supervalu is losing market share, is not priced in-line with competitors and is not spending enough on its asset base, yet much of this appears to be reflected in the current stock valuation. The numbers are grim. Supervalu's results in our most recent supermarket store manager survey declined from already low levels. Indeed, managers indicated that store traffic slowed with those noting declining trends jumping to 36% from 24% in November. Managers also had the impression that roughly 50% of consumers in their stores were less willing to spend, compared to 30% previously." Shares of SVU gained 16 cents in after-hours trading yesterday to close at $11.24, a gain of 1.44%.