** Jefferies cuts Danone DANO.PA to "underperform" from "buy," warning of a slowdown in the China nutrition market, rising dairy competition in the United States that weigh on the French food group

** The brokerage says peer Chobani gained 270bps of share in the U.S. Essential Dairy and Plant-based market while Danone lost around 350bps over the last year

** "We worry Chobani has built a focused single-brand protein platform and translated capacity investment into share Danone spreads across multiple brands," Jefferies says

** On China, it notes that Danone's baby formula Aptamil lost 280bps in online market share YoY in Q2 as Biostime and Friesland Campina gained ground

** "The next 6-12m, we think, are determined by the balance of China Nutrition slowdown vs. NORAM Dairy acceleration," Jefferies says, cutting its price target by 22.5% to €62

** Danone shares down 0.9%

** Out of 25 analysts that cover Danone SA, 16 rate the stock "strong buy" or "buy,"​ seven rate "hold" and two​ rate the stock "strong sell" or "sell" - LSEG data