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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Baldur Fjvlnisson who wrote (3959)	7/7/2002 1:24:46 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

"Even after their research is proven wrong, analysts are fooling with the facts to make it look as if they got clients out of the way of a collapsing stock. Let's use the recent case of VeriSign Inc. as an example, although people who find this practice abhorrent say this sort of thing happens all the time. On April 26, VeriSign reduced its forecast for second quarter earnings. Its stock fell an incredible $8.35 a share to $9.89. That day the company lost nearly $2 billion of its market capitalization - or about half of what it had been worth. Not surprising was that lots of analysts loved the stock before this announcement. And equally expected were the downgrades - some only minor - that came after the shocking company announcement. But here's the deceit. All the analysts who downgraded the company on the 26th used VeriSign's pre-announcement stock price in their reports, making it appear as though the report had hit the Street before the price dropped. In other words, all the analysts made it look as if they were warning clients when the stock was at $18.24, instead of after it had dropped. But in fact, none of the analysts had issued their reports until the stock had fallen. And even if a VeriSign shareholder had been able to move like lightning, the best he could have received for his shares on April 26 was $12.05. "This makes it look like the analysts got it ahead of time," says one trader who thinks the practice should be stopped. "It's a scam." Oh yeah. Among the brokerage firms downgrading VeriSign after the announcement were A.G. Edwards, Salomon Smith Barney, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston. " Excerpt from: HOW WALL STREET'S ANALYSTS FOOLED PUBLIC ON VERISIGN By JOHN CRUDELE nypost.com >>>>>>>>>>>>> Baldur, I wonder how VERSIGN is doing these days.....