Citigroup cuts Vonage from hold to sell -- a little late

Now Citigroup changed its call? Today the analyst woke up to the truth? What the heck has Citigroup been doing for the past year? Rip Van Winkle syndrome? What's going on? Talk about closing the barn doors after the horses have run off!

When I read Kevin Shult's report earlier today that Citigroup cut Vonage Holdings Corp (NYSE: VG) to Sell from Hold on patent litigation concerns as the firm believes the risk to profitability has increased, I did not know whether to laugh or cry for Citigroup's clients. The harshest critics might accuse Citigroup of not changing the call until it had most of its clients out of the stock. Or perhaps, as Cramer reminded us, Citigroup has been shorting the stock and wants to push it down and out?

The analysts calls, upgrades and downgrades, are one of my pet peeves in the investment world. I know of few other things that are so often wrong, so misguided, so untimely and so worthless. I can't believe people are being paid six- and seven-figure incomes for this crap. Last year I went on a rant when Piper Jaffrey issued a twelve month price target for Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) in January of 2006 of $600. It did not come close and it will be lucky if the stock hits that number any time in the next two years. More importantly, as far as I know, Piper Jaffrey hasn't change its view publicly. Seems analysts just sling arrows into the sky and let them land where they may, and think nothing of it.

So now, after the stock has already collapsed, the courts have ruled, the stories of its limited prospects have been chiseled in stone, Citigroup is feeling queasy about Vonage and changed its call. There should be an analysts hall of shame or maybe, just put their pictures up in the post office.

Related story: Cramer, Cramer, Cramer -- You screwed up buddy!

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.