Woe Is Dell

Perhaps Dell(DELL) CEO Kevin Rollins behaved badly in a past life.

His company is clearly suffering from some bad karma.

For those keeping score, Dell said Thursday that federal regulators were looking at its books. The news came a few days after Dell announced the largest recall of a consumer-electronics product ever, which came after Dell's warning a few weeks earlier that it would miss its financial targets for the second quarter.

That warning came a few months after a similar warning Dell issued for the previous quarter.

The barrage of bad news was enough to make some throw in the towel -- at least for now.

"Dell's current headwinds seem severe enough, if only for a few quarters, to rattle even those who were convinced that Dell shares already discounted virtually all of its issues," wrote Goldman Sachs analyst Laura Conigliaro in a note downgrading Dell from a neutral rating to a Sell rating. (Goldman Sachs makes a market in Dell shares and has received compensation for providing Dell with investment banking and non-investment banking services in the past year.)

Dell shares slid 5%, or $1.14, to $21.66 in midday trading Friday.

Management's contention that a turnaround was in progress and would soon show results did little to allay investor skepticism.