These Are The 10 Companies Most Hated By Wall Street
Two months ago, we revealed the list of stocks most hated by the buy-side: that increasingly clueless cabal of Hotel California groupies which, unable to do fundamental analysis (thanks to the Fed) is forced into the same trades and then, when a paradigm shift strikes (as happened ever so frequently over the past year) is crushed under their own and their peers' weight leading to the worst hedge fund performance year since 2008. We said to go long these names in advance of hedge fund liquidations and collateral and margin calls. Incidentally, the trade generated substantial alpha in the past 6 weeks. The full list can be found here.
Today we were not at all surprised to find that the buyside's revulsion toward some of the worst (if better performing) stocks has spread and hit the sellside. Acording to Bloomberg, "analysts" are already ratcheting down their expectations for U.S. stocks, while various economic models are also moving downwards.
As a reminder, we have been covering the gradual conversion of banks such as JPM, Citi, UBS and today, BofA, who have all said to no longer "buy the dip", but to "sell the rip" instead, and while selling stocks, "buy gold."
More details:
Investment banks, including RBC Capital Markets and Citigroup, have been growing more cautious on U.S. stocks and telling clients to look for better opportunities elsewhere. "Fading [earnings per share] momentum and rising Fed funds mean that, after six consecutive years of outperformance, we cut the U.S. to 'underweight,'" Citi said this week.
Meanwhile, forecasts for U.S. economic growth have also been drifting lower because of a raft of newly released and worse-than-expected manufacturing data. Barclays lowered its U.S. fourth-quarter tracking GDP estimate to 1.1 percent from 1.2 percent, while JPMorgan Chase slashed its estimate to 1 percent from 2 percent on lower construction spending and weaker inventory investment. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow indicator shows 1 percent growth for the fourth quarter, down from 1.3 percent on Dec. 23.
Incidentally, these are all the same "experts" who saw nothing but blue skies a year ago when stocks were at all time highs, and nothing seemed able to derail the diagonal move up and to the right... which now even the Fed's own former presidents admit was an artificially contrived levitation, all entirely thanks to the Fed and its central bank peers.
And while the list of "most hated buyside" stocks is at least actionable, not even we are sure what to do with the list of companies that are most hated by the sellside, besides perhaps revealing what it is. So for all those wondering, here courtesy of Factset, is the list of 10 S&P500 companies with the highest percentage of Sell ratings.
But first, some commentary from FactSet:
The number of Sell ratings increased by 4.5% relative to Q3. Six sectors witnessed a rise in the number of Sell ratings, led by the Health Care (+18%) sector. One sector (Telecom Services) recorded no change in the number of Sell ratings. Three sectors witnessed a drop in the number of Sell ratings, led by the Materials (-6%) sector.
At the company level in terms of Sell ratings, NetApp (+5) saw the largest increase in the number of Sell ratings during the quarter, while Diamond Offshore Drilling (-4) recorded the largest decline in the number of Sell ratings during this period.
And now, without further ado, the 10-most hated companies by Wall Street analysts.
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Southern Company?????????????????????
Short squeeze in 3,2,1,...
Son of a Bleach! How did Clorox get on the list?
Utility company in the South, which is having a very warm winter so far? We had to run our AC on Christmas Day it was so warm and humid.
I know, it's outperformed everything in the last 3 months.
Don't you guys all have those heat pump things instead of natural gas heat in the south? Seems like those would use about as much energy in a/c mode as they do in heat mode.
Most older (over 20 years) still have gas furnaces, and you are correct about heat pumps.
Clearly Wall Street wants to accumulate SO.
The experts have spoken...in gibberish........
My ex works at Southern Company.
Hope they go tits-up and her shares go to 0.
Was your ex also having her tits up when you busted her?
You mean to tell me that the stuff all adds to 100? From Wall Street? Must be bad seasonals or a ploy of some sort. Mighty suspicious!
The most hated companies are the ones giving out the buy, hold and sell ratings.
looks like it may be time to buy some of those names.
Anything that requires "base" input costs! ZIRP needs to end, so markets can RE-Define themselves, across the board.
No more write downs, one time losses & adjustments. No -More Non GAAP bullshit from CNBS.
I want GAAP after tax numbers, Bitchez. Wallmart is buying back their stock to boost dividends for pension funds.
Exactly Yen - But to get markets to redefine themsleves is going to be very painful. Especially now that there are 20MM illegals and moar Syrians et al being funded to resetlle in the US, and Europe's economic engine Germany has 1MM new peaceful religion folks being funded in their country. Chaos theory 'bro.
The pain will be too much (as planned) and either helicopter drops or war or perhaops both will be the answer. Unless you have a better idea...
Dow stayed above 16,516. Move along. Nothing to see here...
They actually have sell ratings?
Southern company got hammered on a new coal fired power plant that has run over for years and getting the screws put to them by O-EPA.
this is a little scary because the usual suspects who never get anything right are calling for a selloff with their mediaphone. are they buying? are they right?
i am having a difficult time sorting this out because i agree with them. the only contrarian hope is a sudden dose of inflation. the other more machiavellian analysis is the object is to devalue the dollar so next quarter's earnings surprises and the market rips to 2000+ in a coupla days after dropping to 1700 as the barkers pound their books.
theyre just late. they have to acknowledge teh selloff and draw a line in a somewhat downward slope for about 30 days, then proclain that after 30 days, growth is around the corner and at 19x ttm instead of 22x that bargains abound
I'm sure they hate ABC Media, LTD more than any other entity despite it not placing. Nanex should be somewhere on that list too.
Clorox has a 2.4% dividend. Perhaps the nameless "they" are just trying to scare people out of it. I look forward to buying it if it ever crashes.
they hate the items that already have gone down, or that arent pie in the sky concepts. if they hated the neg cash flow-ever expanding number of shares- 8x price to sales cloud or pharma stocks, id have an iota of respect