Analyst downgrades: AKH, LLY, MER, WMT and GSK
Posted Oct 25th 2007 11:22AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Wal-Mart (WMT), Merrill Lynch (MER), Palm Inc (PALM), Lilly (Eli) (LLY)
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Air France, Eli Lilly, Merrill Lynch, Wal-Mart and GlaxoSmithKline were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Goldman removed shares of Air France (NYSE: AKH) from its Conviction Buy List due to the increase in the price of fuel and the possibility of an economic slowdown.
- The firm also removed Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) from the list after the company suspended two studies of its anti-clotting drug. The company was also downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
- UBS downgraded shares of Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) to Neutral from Buy as it believes the company's exposure to problem asset classes will remain under pressure and possibly lead to further write-downs. UBS lowered its Q4 estimate to $1.12 from $1.18 and 2008 estimate to $7.00 from $7.85. Shares were also downgraded at Wachovia to Market Perform from Outperform. The firm sees increased risk to the MER story given expected pressure on compensation to keep people, speculation around turnover in senior ranks, and the ability to retain and motivate people. Additionally, the firm sees further risk to MER's exposure to ABS, CDOs and sub-prime asset declines.
- Rochdale downgraded shares of Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) to Hold from Buy citing lack of catalysts from the company's two-day analyst meeting.
- WestLB downgraded shares of GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) to Sell from Add to reflect the company's growth prospects in Q4 and 2008.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Sirenza Microdevices (NASDAQ: SMDI) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
- Piper Jaffray lowered its rating on Talbots (NYSE: TLB) to Market Perform from Outperform.
- Bear Stearns downgraded Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) to Underperform from Peer Perform.
Tags: air france, AirFrance, akh, analyst, downgrade, eli lilly, EliLilly, glaxosmithkline, gsk, lly, mer, merrill lynch, MerrillLynch, palm, sirenza, smdi, talbots, tlb, wal-mart, wmt
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. I hear that Lilly is a good company to work for with jobs for 45,000 worldwide?
I wish them all the best,and hope they recover,and pay my Zyprexa damage claim.
Daniel Haszard
Posted at 3:56PM on Oct 25th 2007 by Daniel Haszard