NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Petrobras  (PBR.A)  are down 4.63% to $5.36 in afternoon trading today amid falling oil prices, and as Cowen lowered its price target to $9 from $11 on the Brazil state-owned oil and gas company.

Brent fell 0.81% to $57.41 at 3:31 p.m. in New York. West Texas Intermediate was down 2.28% to $47.07. The global benchmark moved lower with WTI lower as traders reacted to the imminent expiry next week of the April front-month contracts for both oils.

U.S. crude prices are falling after market data provider Genscape estimated a stock build of 2.2 million barrels since Friday in the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for oil, traders told Reuters.

Adding pressure to the stock, Cowen analysts see potential pitfalls with the pending outcome of the ongoing corruption scandal plaguing the company, Barron's reports.

Among the questions analysts pose is whether a new management team can gain investor credibility by publishing audited financial results and rooting out corruption. Petrobras needs "significant" capital to develop Brazil's offshore resource base with anticipated annual spending of $44 billion under the current five-year business plan, Cowen observed.

The recent Moody's debt downgrade and related developments, however, create "significant" hurdles in accessing the international credit markets, analysts added.

Furthermore, Petrobras and the Operation Lava Jato corruption scandal are among the major concerns of Regina Nunes, the Managing Director and Office Head of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in Brazil and in Argentina, according to the influential Brazilian daily Estadao.

Following meetings last week in Brazil, failure to release the company's financial results in a timely fashion could accelerate a downgrade of the company, Nunes said.

Petrobras said it would publish audited results for 2014 by the end of May.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER (PBR.A) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed, some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 19.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.8%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• PBR.A's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 1.30 is sturdy.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $6,413.00 million or 18.05% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER has marginally lower results.
• The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: PBR.A Ratings Report