Analyst Downgrades: FireEye Inc, Transocean LTD, and Vivint Solar Inc

Analysts downwardly revised their ratings on FEYE, RIG, and VSLR

Nov 11, 2014 at 9:27 AM

Analysts are weighing in today on cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE), offshore drilling specialist Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG), and Wall Street rookie Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on FEYE, RIG, and VSLR.

Macquarie initiated coverage on FEYE (and a pair of its sector peers) with a "neutral" rating -- less than a day after the firm was added to J.P. Morgan Securities' "Focus" list, and discovered a bug in Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS. On the charts, FireEye Inc has struggled in 2014, losing more than one-quarter of its value to sit at $32.39. This technical weakness hasn't been lost on short sellers. During the past two reporting periods, short interest on FEYE spiked 16.1%, and now makes up 18.1% of the stock's total float.

RIG -- which has tumbled roughly 41% year-to-date to rest at $29.28 -- saw its price target cut to $28 from $38 at UBS (which affirmed its "neutral" rating), and to $27 from $30 at Cowen (which reiterated its "market perform" opinion). Conversely, Evercore lifted its price target to $27 from $24, while maintaining its "sell" assessment. Taking a step back, sentiment toward Transocean LTD is pretty bearish everywhere one looks on the Street. The equity's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 3.31 rests just 2 percentage points from an annual high, while 24% of RIG's float is sold short -- which would take more than a week to buy back, at the stock's average daily volume.

Finally, VSLR posted a big earnings miss last night, prompting Barclays to trim its price target to $16 from $17, and Goldman Sachs to reduce its target to $20 from $22 -- though both maintained their respective "equal weight" and "buy" ratings. As such, the shares are set to open 11.3% lower, exacerbating the technical struggles already encountered by the Wall Street freshman. Since going public on Oct. 1, the stock has slipped roughly 13% to its Monday close at $14.74. Nevertheless, bullish betting has been prevalent in Vivint Solar Inc's options pits. Specifically, the security's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio is 3.54, meaning more than three calls have been bought to open for every put during the past two weeks.

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