Analyst Downgrades: Xerox Corp, Alere Inc, and Dillard's, Inc.

Analysts are weighing in on copy expert Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX), diagnostics firm Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR), and retail stock Dillard's, Inc. (NYSE:DDS). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on XRX, ALR, and DDS.

• XRX is lower in early trading, last seen down 0.6% at $9.11, after a downgrade to "underweight" at Morgan Stanley. Looking back further, it hasn't been a pretty year for the shares, which have fallen 14%. Not surprisingly, then, most other analysts share Morgan Stanley's downbeat outlook, as only 29% recommend buying the stock. Meanwhile, Xerox Corp also announced that Conduent -- which it plans to spin off into a separate, publicly traded company -- does not plan on paying a dividend. 

• After selling off on earnings Friday, ALR has so far added back 2.7% at $37.08, even as brokerage firms cut their outlooks. Namely, Cannacord Genuity, BTIG, and Goldman Sachs all trimmed their price targets, with the lowest mark of $42 coming from the latter. It's been an interesting year for Alere Inc, which traded as high as $54.13 back in February, but now sits 5% lower year-to-date after suffering a series of bear gaps in the months that followed. Looking closer, today's bounce isn't all that surprising, since ALR's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) was just 18 as of Friday's close -- well into oversold territory. 

• DDS is also brushing off a bearish note this morning, last seen 0.8% higher at $61.62, despite a price-target cut to $59 from $60 at J.P. Morgan Securities. On the charts, Dillard's, Inc. sits in a year-over-year hole of 29.2%, with the 200-day moving average thwarting multiple breakout attempts since March. Understandably, options traders have been extremely bearish of late. By the numbers, DDS' 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) is 2.57, outranking two-thirds of the past year's readings.

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