FedEx: When is a downgrade an upgrade?

Under the category of more nonsense from analysts, you can file this morning's downgrade of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) as reported by Kevin Shult.

• FedEx was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup which lowered its target to $120 from $132 to reflect expectations for slower earnings growth in the next few quarters combined with ongoing uncertainty on the timing of an economic recovery.

So here is what I think is the nonsense part: Notice that while Citi does not recommend you buy FedEx, it has still given it a 12 month price target of $120 per share. While I am typing away, FDX is trading at just over $105 per share so if Citi is correct about the $120 figure, buying right now would result in a 14.28% gain plus a small dividend yield of 0.335% for a total annual return of 14.62%. I guess Citigroup thinks beating the 70-year market average by over 4% is meaningless.

I hope this drives the stock price down a few bucks because I own FedEx and would like to own some more! Then, before you know it, Citi will upgrade it based on valuation.

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.