2 hours, 37 minutes ago NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wachovia Corp (WB.N) shares fell as much as 10 percent on Friday after a downgrade by a Morgan Keegan & Co analyst, who said the stock's 73 percent rise in seven trading days wasn't justified in light of its credit problems.Analyst Robert Patten cut his rating for Wachovia to "underperform" from "market perform." The downgrade came a day after Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, said Chief Financial Officer Thomas Wurtz was resigning and three days after it reported a record second-quarter loss of $8.86 billion.
Patten recommended investors buy shares of SunTrust Banks Inc (STI.N) and First Horizon National Corp (FHN.N). The Southeast regional banks are better positioned in terms of capital and reserves to handle the nation's credit crisis, and have more predictable earnings streams into 2009, he said.
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