Dividend.com: Burlington Northern Off Track

The analyst believes the company's latest acquisition of Merrill Lynch may pose credit and integration risks for Bank of America, which has told Wall Street it anticipates $7 billion in annual cost savings from the merger.

We have talked about the departure of Bob McCann, who had led Merrill Lynch's 16,000 brokerage division since 2003. The culture differences from this acquisition as well as when it purchased Countrywide has made for a shaky situation with possibly one deal too many being the case.

We had removed shares of Bank of America from our "Recommended" list back on Sept. 15, when the stock traded at $33.74. We would still avoid the name at this current time.

Bank of America is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars.

Polaris Industries Flips Over After Downgrade

Polaris Industries(PII Quote) shares are down nearly 7% today after the company was downgraded to a hold from a buy at Citi Investment Research.

The analyst said checks with all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and motorcycles dealers revealed that sales at Polaris declined in the fourth quarter and are unlikely to improve in 2009. He also believes the weak economy has likely caused consumers to take a conservative view and delay purchases.

We had removed the shares of Polaris from our "Recommended" list -- back on June 30 -- when shares traded at $40.38. The company has a 5.44% dividend yield, based on Friday's closing stock price of $27.93.

The stock does have technical support in the $16 to $18 price area. If the shares can firm up and regain some momentum, we see overhead resistance playing a factor in the $37 area. We would look elsewhere for better investment opportunities.