Analyst downgrades: WB, AIG, BT, NOK, ERIC, ALU, TWTI, T
Posted Jul 15th 2008 11:47AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, AT and T (T), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Wachovia Corp (WB), Alcatel-LucentADS (ALU)
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Wachovia, American International Group and BT Group were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Wachovia (NYSE: WB) to Underperform from Perform as they believe the outlook is "bleak" for equity shareholders. The firm thinks Wachovia's expenses can't come down fast enough too offset earnings erosion.
- Wachovia downgraded shares of American International Group (NYSE: AIG) to Market Perform from Outperform as they believe AIG's CDO valuations worsened in Q2, which could result in a $2B-$7B after tax "valuation adjustment." Wachovia expects the value of AIG's core insurance franchise to be obscured by its credit exposure.
- Collins Stewart cut BT Group (NYSE: BT) to Hold from Buy on concerns surrounding the company's fiber network expansion.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was downgraded to Add from Buy at WestLB; the firm also lowered Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to Hold from Buy and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to Sell from Hold.
- Third Wave (NASDAQ: TWTI) was cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
- AT&T (NYSE: T) was removed from Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
Tags: aig, alu, bt, eric, inthenews, nok, t, twti, wb
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