Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) lowered its opinion on the telecom sector today, saying that firms within this group will face continued pressure as customers replace their home phones with wireless ones.
In another timely release, the company said that they don't think Saddam Hussein will turn over his weapons of mass destruction, and that war with Iraq could be imminent.
OK, OK, I may be poking a little fun at Goldman here, but if you caught Jeff Fischer's Take on Verizon (NYSE:VZ) yesterday, you realize that this so-called "sector downgrade" isn't the most timely of announcements.
The truth is, though there have been a few bright spots, the overall telecom sector has been weak for some time now, and this news would have been a tad bit more useful to investors about 18 months ago.
Now, to be fair, I've said in the past that if you ignore the "Buy, Sell, Hold, and Super Duper Strong Hold" recommendations, the actual research from many of the mainstream brokers can be quite good (and Goldman is no exception here). But a caveat would be that you should also ignore much of the fluff offered in the form of "sector coverage," and stick with the individual company research provided by these investment-banking giants.
After all, it's really those aforementioned "bright spots" that we as investors are most concerned with anyway. In other words, details matter more than generalizations. I may not be a big fan of the retail sector, but I won't be shorting Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) anytime soon.
It's also difficult to convey accurate, useful, and actionable information when making broad statements about entire sectors. And I don't know about you, but I'm more concerned with the performance of the individual companies that I own than with the sectors that they may or may not fall into. Indeed, one can often find the greatest values when seeking companies that are performing well within weak sectors.
Now, please understand that I'm not suggesting overall sector performance doesn't matter, or that it shouldn't factor into your investment decisions. But if you're relying on the large brokers for your investment tools, you should realize that the research they offer on this front might not provide any more insight than your own.
