Analyst Downgrades: Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc, Microsemi Corporation, and BlackRock, Inc.

Analysts downwardly revised their ratings and price targets on biotech Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX), semiconductor stock Microsemi Corporation (MSCC), and investment firm BlackRock, Inc. (BLK)

Jan 4, 2017 at 10:25 AM

Analysts are weighing in on biotech Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), semiconductor stock Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC), and investment firm BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on VRX, MSCC, and BLK.

VRX is down 1.8% at $14.96, after a downbeat analyst note from Piper Jaffray, which called VRX "uninvestable" and lowered its price target to $11 from $16 -- seven-year low territory. VRX has plummeted 94% since notching an all-time high of $263.70 in August 2015, and is currently looking up at resistance from its 30-day moving average. In the option pits, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc sports a Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.65, which sits lower than 82% of all other readings from the past year, indicating a larger-than-usual call-skew among near-term option players.
MSCC is trading down 1.6% at $53.69, after Goldman Sachs removed the stock from its "Americas Buy" list, and cut its opinion to "neutral" from "buy," though the brokerage firm also raised its target price on the semiconductor stock to $56 from $50. The shares touched an all-time high of $57.32 in early December, but since then have been churning between $53 and $57. Short sellers are likely cheering today's dip, with short interest accounting for 8.2% of MSCC's float, which would take nearly eight days to cover, at Microsemi Corporation's average daily volume.
BLK is down 0.3% at $385.14, following a downgrade to "neutral" from "buy" by Goldman Sachs. The shares recently notched an all-time high of $399.46 in late December, and are currently up more than 37% since BLK's January 2016 lows. Despite its trek upwards over the past year, bearish sentiment prevails in BlackRock, Inc.'s option pits, with BLK's 50-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) of 1.26 sitting just 6 percentage points from an annual peak.

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