Analyst downgrades: ERIC, CC and HOTT

Posted Nov 21st 2007 9:25AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Ericsson, Circuit City and Hot Topic were today's noteworthy downgrades:

Societe Generale downgraded shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to Hold from Buy after the company lowered its Q4 guidance. Goldman Sachs downgraded shares to Neutral from Buy on the company's lowered Q4 revenue outlook and the growing probability that the wireless infrastructure market will decline again in 2008.
Circuit City (NYSE: CC)'s rating was lowered to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan, as they believe the company's high cost turnaround will require a strategic partner or acquirer, which may not happen until after 2H08 and this year's holiday season.
Citigroup downgraded shares of Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT) to Hold from Buy to reflect their pushed out expectations for an earnings recovery.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns.
Lehman downgraded Telecom Italia (NASDAQ: TI) to Underweight from Equal Weight.
Goldman removed Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) from its Conviction Buy List.

Tags: CC, downgrades, Ericsson, FCX, Freeport McMoRan, FreeportMcmoran, Hot Topic, HOTT, HotTopic, ODP, Office Depot, OfficeDepot, TI