Brokerage Firms Again Downgrading Each Other (C, GD, GS, JEF, KBW, LEH, MS, NCC, SGR)

These are some of the top analyst downgrades or negative calls we are seeing this morning, and you’ll notice that brokerage firm stocks are again the targets of many downgrades:

• Citigroup (C) Cut To Underperform From Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
• General Dynamics (GD) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
• Goldman Sachs (GS) Cut to Underperform from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
• Jefferies (JEF) Cut to Sell at B of A.
• Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW) Cut to Sell at B of A.
• Lehman (LEH) Cut to Underperform from Hold at Merrill Lynch.
• LSI Industries (LYTS) Cut to Underperform at Baird.
• McDermott (MDR) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
• Morgan Stanley (MS) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
• National City (NCC) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann.
• Shaw Group (SGR) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.

Obviously there are a few calls thrown in here that aren’t brokerage firms or investment banking firms, but the brokers are back to killing each other again for the third day this week.

Jon C. Ogg
August 14, 2008