The equity received downgrades from both Credit Suisse and Raymond James
Television provider Altice USA Inc (NYSE:ATUS) is down 5.3% at $19.51 this morning, after the security received downgrades from both Credit Suisse and Raymond James to "neutral" from "outperform," and "market perform" from "outperform," respectively. Credit Suisse also cut its price target to $24 from $46, noting it had been "wrong" about Altice's current broadband competitiveness. The analyst in coverage added the company's new investment strategy could take several quarters to bear fruit, if not longer.
Analysts were split on Altice stock coming into today, with seven carrying a "hold" or worse rating, while seven called it a "buy" or better. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus target price of $37.52 is a 90.9% premium to current levels, indicating more price-target cuts may be on the horizon.
Shorts have been piling on the security, too. The 33.80 million shares sold short account for 8.8% of the stock's available float, and would take over eight days to cover, at ATUS' average pace of daily trading.
The options pits lean firmly in the bearish camp. This is per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 5.67, which sits higher than 98% of readings from the past year. In simpler terms, short-term options traders have rarely been more put-biased.
On the charts, ATUS is fresh off three-straight weeks in the red. Overhead pressure at the 20-day moving average has been guiding shares lower since late July, after the stock slipped below former support at the $33 level. The security is now trading at a fresh annual low, and carries a 48.6% year-to-date deficit.