FWIW..
>>SELL, SELL, SELL: The volume of sell ratings on stocks has reached its highest point since the late 1980s. Wall Street currently rates 10% of stocks a sell, 46% a buy, and 44% a hold, according to Zacks Investment Research in Chicago. That is the highest level since the number of sell recommendations rose after the 1987 stock-market crash.
The current market downturn, combined with new regulations that require investment banks to detail the percentage of buys, sells and holds their analysts assign to stocks, has fueled the more-negative outlook. The regulations went into place in September, and the percentage of sell ratings rose within a week to 7.3% from 4.7%, according to
Thomson First Call, which tracks analyst ratings. Throughout the late 1990s, less than 1% of stocks were rated sell.
The level of sells varies widely from firm to firm. Prudential Securities Inc., which has highlighted its lack of an investment-banking presence, rates 3% of its stocks sell, 58% hold and 39% buy, according to the most-recent data available. Big investment-banking firm Salomon Smith Barney, a key target in New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's probe of research conflicts of interest, rates 26% of the stocks it covers sell, 42% hold and 33% buy.<< |
