Analyst downgrades: Mortgage finance sector, APPB, FTEK, BHP, AAUK and RTP

Lehman downgraded the mortgage finance sector to Negative from Neutral citing the potential of over $100B in losses for the group in the coming years. Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight; IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE: IMB) and Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC) were downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight.
Applebee's International (NASDAQ: APPB) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wachovia, as the firm sees potential downside risk if the company's acquisition of IHOP Corp (NYSE: IHP) does not go through, following mixed reviews from Proxy firms.
Merriman downgraded shares of Fuel-Tech (NASDAQ: FTEK) to Sell from Neutral after channel checks indicated the competitive landscape is much more challenging than commonly perceived for the FUEL CHEM product line. Merriman sees significant risk to shares at current levels.
Citigroup downgraded shares of BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) to Hold from Buy on valuation following the recent rally.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Lehman downgraded the specialty finance sector to Neutral from Positive; the firm downgraded American Express Company (NYSE: AXP), Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
JP Morgan downgraded Dollar Tree Stores (NASDAQ: DLTR) to Underweight from Neutral.
Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANPI) was downgraded to Sector Performer from Sector Outperformer at CIBC and to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital.

Tags: aauk, american express, AmericanExpress, analyst, angiotech, anglo american, AngloAmerican, anpi, appb, applebee's, axp, bhp, bhp billiton, BhpBilliton, capital one, CapitalOne, cfc, cof, countrywide, dfs, discover, dltr, dollar tree, DollarTree, downgrade, ftek, fuel-tech, ihop, ihp, imb, indymac, lulu, lululemon, rio tinto, RioTinto, rtp, washington mutual, WashingtonMutual, wm

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-22-2007 @ 12:16PM

Skibro said...

Lehman, Merriman, Wachovia, and Citigroup analysts must have played golf together this weekend.
Who cares what they think?
They should have downgraded their company stock and see what happens.
I wouldn't buy their company's stock no matter what.

10-22-2007 @ 5:19PM

Delaney said...

It is amazing to me that they downgrade stocks
after they have already gone down 60+% !!

At some point , CFC and WM will recover
as they are major players in the home mortgage
market.