Ahead of the Bell: Waddell & Reed cut to 'Sell'

By Associated Press
September 3, 2008 | Comments (0)

Recs

0

Panic 2008... Profit 2009!

Fool -- Now's the time to invest! David and Tom Gardner's new book reveals their strategy for million dollar wealth.

Buy Now!

A Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst on Wednesday downgraded the shares of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. and cut his full-year profit estimate, citing weak investment performance trends and slowing earnings growth.

In a note to clients, analyst Michael Kim downgraded the shares to "Sell" from "Hold," and trimmed his full-year profit estimate by 5 cents to $1.66 per share.

The estimate cut reflects quarter-to-date market losses and tighter margins, Kim said.

Based on returns across the investment firm's three flagship mutual funds, Kim estimates market losses have wiped out about $3 billion of assets since June 30, or more than 4 percent of the company's asset base.

Kim also cut his 12-month price target on the stock to $28 from $34.

Read/Post Comments (0) | Recommend This Article (0)

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Compare Brokers

DocumentId: 719240, ~/articles/articlehandler.aspx, 1/8/2009 1:48:16 AM

Sign up for FREE Motley Fool site access to keep reading:

“Ahead of the Bell: Waddell & Reed cut to 'Sell'”

Signing up allows you to comment on articles and on the discussion boards.

It's completely FREE and will take only 10 seconds.

Privacy / Legal Information

We will use your email address only to keep you informed about updates to our web site and about other products and services that we think might interest you. The Motley Fool respects your privacy. Please read our Privacy Statement

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.