The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, June 6, edition that CIBC World Markets analyst Hamir Patel has lowered his recommendation for Richelieu Hardware to "neutral" from "outperformer." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Patel, however, is sticking with his $46 share target, which is $1.50 under the consensus. The Globe reports that Mr. Patel is "moving to the sidelines" on Richelieu Hardware. It says his downgrade was in response to strong recent share price appreciation. With Richelieu having outperformed peers over the last year, Mr. Patel now sees "more compelling risk/reward opportunities" in his wood products coverage universe. Mr. Patel says in a note: "Over the medium to long term, we believe Richelieu is well positioned to deliver organic market share gains and execute on its M&A pipeline. When we upgraded Richelieu a year ago, we highlighted the name as a relatively recession resilient stock trading at a steep discount to its historical multiple. With the shares having outperformed the TSX Composite by over 30 per cent, valuation is less compelling as Richelieu now trades at 10.8 times 2024 EBITDA, right in line with its historical 12 to 24 month forward multiple (10.8 times)."