Benzinga's Top Downgrades With Color for May 25, 2012

Listed below are today's Top Downgrades at Benzinga: KeyBanc Capital Markets Downgrades Lululemon Athletica LULU to Hold: KeyBanc Capital Markets says, "While we believe that lululemon athletica inc. (LULU-NASDAQ) has one of the strongest growth prospects in our coverage universe, our more cautious view on the U.S. high-end consumer, coupled with relative valuation cause us to move to the sidelines. Since our upgrade from UNDERWEIGHT to BUY on December 2, 2011, the stock has risen 54% vs. 6% for the S&P 500 (SPX) and 14% for the S&P Retail Index (RLX), as of May 23, 2012. Our long-term, positive thesis on LULU remains unchanged. Jefferies Downgrades HJ Heinz HNZ to Hold: Jefferies comments, "We are downgrading HNZ to Hold and are lowering out PT to $56. While the international businesses seem to do well, the North American Consumer Products division continues to struggle. After several attempts to improve this business, we prefer to move to the sidelines until the company shows some turnaround success. FY13 guidance was disappointing, in our view, with potentially all of the EPS growth coming from tax benefits." JP Morgan Downgrades HJ Heinz HNZ to Neutral: JP Morgan mentioned, "Though the overall story remains solid and Heinz has better upside potential in emerging markets than most companies we cover, we now see limited upside to both our earnings estimates and the valuation multiple. At the same time, we see limited downside as well, with the company's healthy dividend and free cash yields likely to provide support. We still think Heinz has numerous positive qualities as a company and we respect management's openness and thoroughness at yesterday's investor day. So for investors seeking a high quality stream of dividend income, Heinz remains a quality choice. We merely see insufficient growth opportunities at the moment to warrant a more constructive outlook." All of Benzinga's Analyst Ratings news can be viewed here.