Bear Stearns Cuts Rating on EMC, Sun Microsystems
Bear Stearns
lowered its investment ratings on computer hardware and software equipment suppliers
EMC
(EMC)
and
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Sunworks, Inc. Report
to attractive from buy.
In his research note, analyst Andy Neff said that while both EMC and Sun "are leaders," he expects a slowdown in corporate IT spending to "impact both companies' financial performance," adding that "gravity is bound to take over."
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Neff said that he sees signs of weak consumer demand in the PC market, which has "continued to deteriorate," and indicated that the sluggishness was spreading into small- and medium-sized corporate customers. Neff downgraded PC stocks in September, citing concerns about weak demand.
After Thursday's bell,
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation Report
dropped a
bomb, warning that weakening PC sales, corporate IT spending and online advertising would lower its second-quarter earnings and revenue.
Shares of EMC recently fell $4.63, or 6.2%, to $70 on the Big Board. Sun lost $1.31, or 4.1%, to $30.38 in
Nasdaq
trading.