There Sure Were A Lot Of Stock Downgrades Last Quarter

Analyst downgrades of Fortune 100 companies nearly doubled the number of upgrades last quarter. Why were market watchers so pessimistic?

The number of Fortune 100 companies that experienced net downgrades from analysts nearly doubled those that received net upgrades over the last 90 days. That's according to data from StarMine compiled by Thompson One Analytics showing that while there were 21 companies receiving net upgrades from analysts in the last 90 days, there were 39 companies whose stock analysts felt would lose value in the months to come due to various market factors.

So just what might those factors be? Firstly, momentum often leads analysts to believe a peak has been reached and a stock will likely turn the corner downward in the months ahead. The stock price history isn't the only cause for a downgrade; analysts also take into account sector- and company-specific data and trends that could affect the direction a stock will take.

As for the recently downgraded list, industries represented are as varied as technology, finance, entertainment, and construction (full list below). In a few cases, the downgrades come as little surprise.

Construction giant Caterpillar's downgrade comes on the heels of comments from that hedge fund titan Jim Chanos made at CNBC's Delivering Alpha Conference last month that he was shorting the stock, citing a lack of financial flexibility.

And in the case of powerhouse stock Amazon, the company experienced a rise in share price in the face of a recent earnings miss, which may have given analysts a cause for concern, though CEO Jeff Bezos doesn't really seem to care all that much.

Disney's stock experienced something similar after the company's release of The Lone Ranger flopped tremendously on its opening weekend. Though shares were trading up by about 1% the Monday morning following the weekend, it's been mostly downhill ever since.

Net Upgrades of the Last 90 Days

AAPL Apple Inc

ADM Archer Daniels Midland Co

ALL Allstate Corporation

BG Bunge Limited

BHI Baker Hughes Incorporated

CMCSA Comcast Corp

CSCO Cisco Sys Inc

DAL Delta Air Lines Inc

FOX AU Twenty-First Century Fox Inc

HES Hess Corp

HPQ Hewlett Packard Co

IM Ingram Micro

JCI Johnson Ctls Inc

LMT Lockheed Martin Corporation

LYB Lyondellbasell Industries Nv

PSX Phillips 66

SLB Schlumberger Ltd

T AT&T Inc

TSN Tyson Foods Inc

UAL United Continental Holdings Inc

WMT Wal-Mart Stores Inc

Net Downgrades

ABC AmerisourceBergen Corp

ACN Accenture Plc

AET Aetna Incorporated

AMZN Amazon.Com Inc.

AXP American Express Company

BAC Bank Of America Corp

CAT Caterpillar Incorporated

CI CIGNA Corporation

CVX Chevron Corp

DD EI Du Pont De Nemours & Co

DE Deere & Company

DIS Walt Disney Company

FDX FedEx Corp

FOXA Twenty-First Century Fox Inc

GOOG Google Inc

HON Honeywell International

HUM Humana Inc

IBM International Business Machines

INT World Fuel Services Corporation

INTC Intel Corporation

JNJ Johnson & Johnson

KR Kroger Co/The

MCK McKesson Corp

MMM 3M Co

MPC Marathon Petroleum Corp

MSFT Microsoft Corp

ORCL Oracle Corporation

PAA Plains All American Pipeline Lp

PFE Pfizer Inc

PRU Prudential Financial Inc

SWY Safeway Inc

TGT Target Corporation

UNH UnitedHealth Group Inc

UPS United Parcel Service-Cl B

UTX United Technologies Cp

VLO Valero Energy Corporation

WAG Walgreen Co

WFC Wells Fargo & Co

WLP Wellpoint Inc

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