Companies of Interest: Short

SYNA Synaptics downgraded to Sell at Lazard Capital; tgt $18 (23.38 )
Lazard Capital downgrades SYNA to Sell from Hold and sets target price at $18 saying the magnitude of Intel's preannouncement last night and the negative commentary on the P.C market reflect the significant worsening in the market since mid-October. They believe that Synaptics' C4Q and C1Q revenue estimates could be at risk, as ~70% of the co's business is exposed to the P.C supply chain.

SYNA Synaptics ests cut at Oppenheimer following INTC's preannouncement (23.38 )
Oppenheimer cuts ests on SYNA following Intel's (INTC) negative preannouncement, to reflect the deterioration of the PC market. But the firm is sticking by their underlying thesis, that SYNA will benefit from the long-term growth of touch-based wireless devices and the secular shift towards notebook computing. They think SYNA may do better than the worst-case scenario they currently project, but given the macro-economic environment, they've opted to check their optimism at the door. Firm cuts their C4Q08 ests to $124 from $141 mln in revenue (consensus $138.9 mln) and to $0.58 from $0.73 in EPS (consensus $0.68); firm cuts their tgt to $35 from $39.