Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Meredith Whitney Goldman downgrade

This is how analyst Meredith Whitney treats the media — the industry that helped turn her into the renowned bankslayer she is today:

Meredith Whitney GS downgrade

While clients get the full Goldman note, journalists are left to psychically read Whitney’s thoughts. Huff.

Other media outlets, we should note, are just as clueless as we are. Here’s Bloomberg for instance:

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the biggest U.S. securities firm before converting to a bank last year, was cut to “neutral” by Meredith Whitney, as the analyst dropped her only “buy” recommendation.

Whitney, who correctly predicted in 2007 that Citigroup Inc. would cut its dividend, didn’t update her price estimate on the shares in a summary note distributed to investors today. Further details on the downgrade weren’t immediately available.

While we have no idea about Whitney’s reasoning, we can note that her last action on Goldman was an upgrade (also expurgated for the media) from `neutral’ to `buy’ right before the bank released its record second-quarter results. That upgrade, incidentally, sent GS shares — and the whole of the US equity market — rallying.

Goldman Sachs is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday.

(from FT.com, October 13, 2009)

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