Analyst Downgrades: Qualcomm, Texas Instruments

Analysts are weighing in on chipmakers QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN), as well as kidney disease specialist Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on QCOM, TXN, and KERX.

• It's been a rough ride for QCOM in 2015, down 16% at $62.40. To the delight of option traders, the equity is extending this negative price action today -- off 2.7% -- after the firm offered up a weak current-quarter forecast, and confirmed plans to explore cost-cutting measures. Also pressuring the shares is a bevy of price-target cuts, including ones from Susquehanna (to $60) and Topeka Capital (to $65). Should QUALCOMM, Inc. continue its downward trajectory, another round of bearish brokerage notes could be on the horizon. More than half of those following the shares currently maintain a "buy" or better rating, while the average 12-month price target of $74 stands at an 18.6% premium to QCOM's present price.


• TXN also provided a lackluster third-quarter forecast, due to a "generally softer market," prompting a number of brokerage firms to downwardly revise their price targets. Included in the bunch were Baird and Deutsche Bank, which reduced their target prices to $49, and Morgan Stanley, which lowered its price target by $4 to $46. However, the stock is up 1.3% at the open to trade at $49.95 -- and pare its year-to-date deficit to 6.5%. In the options pits, short-term speculators have been more put-heavy than usual toward Texas Instruments Incorporated. Specifically, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 2.22 ranks in the 65th annual percentile.


• KERX tumbled to a new annual low of $8.69 out of the gate -- and was last seen 3.9% lower at $9.17 -- after Cowen and Company cut its rating to "market perform" from "outperform." Heading into today's session, the stock had already shed about a third of its value in 2015, and short sellers have been gambling on even steeper losses. In fact, short interest surged 11.9% in the last two reporting periods, and now accounts for more than 40% of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals' available float.