IACI: Cowen Downgrades

Cowen analyst Jim Friedland this morning cut his rating on IAC/Interactive (IACI) to Neutral from Outperform, it what is essentially a valuation call.

He offers four reasons for the downgrade:

• Revenues from search unit Ask.com are likely to “decelerate meaningfully” in 2011 and 2012.
• Match.com has exceeded expectations due to value-creating M&A, butg he sees few assets left to buy in a relatively mature segment.
• The company has cut corporate overhead 15%, and rationalized its startup portfolio, saving a combined $25 million to $30 million in expenses; he sees little left to cut.
• The shares, he says, not longer trade at a material discount due to worries of destructive uses of cash after the repurchase of $925 million in stock and a disciplined M&A strategy over the past 6 quarters.

IACI is down 39 cents, or 1.4%, to $26.24.