Posted on Monday, September 24th, 2018 by MarketBeat StaffMost people know that brokerage rankings are overstated because of pressure from publicly-traded companies. No investor relations person wants to see "hold" and "sell" ratings issued for their stock. In reality, a "buy" rating really means "hold." "Hold" ratings really mean "sell" and "sell" ratings mean get out while you still can.
If Wall Street's top analysts are consistently giving "hold" and "sell" ratings to a stock, you know there's a serious problem. We've compiled a list of the companies that Wall Street's top equities research analysts are consistently giving "hold" and "sell" ratings too. If you own one of these stocks, consider getting out while there's still time.
This slide show lists the 20 companies that have the lowest average analyst recommendations from Wall Street's equities research analysts over the last 12 months.
#1 - Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC)
Consensus Rating: Sell
Rating Score: 1.3
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $12.00 (-53.9% Upside)
Ecopetrol S.A. operates as an integrated oil and gas company. It operates through three segments: Exploration and Production; Refining, Petrochemical, and Biofuels; and Transport and Logistics. The company produces crude oil and gas; and engages in the extraction, collection, treatment, storage and pumping or compression of hydrocarbons. It also transports and distributes hydrocarbons, derivatives, and products. The company has 8,500 kilometers of transportation pipeline systems. In addition, it commercializes crude oils and by-products, including fuel oil, virgin naphtha, cracked naphtha, aviation gasoline, and others; produces and markets polypropylene resin, compounds, and masterbatches; provides financing services; and offers refined and petrochemical products, as well as industrial service sales to customers. The company was formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos and changed its name to Ecopetrol S.A. in June 2003. Ecopetrol S.A. was founded in 1948 and is based in Bogotá, Colombia.
#2 - Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH)
Consensus Rating: Sell
Rating Score: 1.4
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 3 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $91.00 (1.5% Upside)
Banco de Chile provides various banking products and services to individuals, corporate clients, large companies, and small and medium-sized companies in Chile and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Wholesale, Treasury, and Subsidiaries. It offers checking accounts; personal, car, and mortgage loans; credit cards; credit lines; and investment products, such as fixed-term, automatic renewal, and tax benefit deposits, as well as stocks, portfolio management, voluntary retirement savings/mutual funds, foreign currency, and fixed income investment products. The company also provides insurance products and trust commissions, as well as financial consultancy services related to mergers and acquisitions, liabilities financing and restructuring, capital contribution, bonds and stocks emissions, and international business. In addition, it offers debt instruments; derivative contracts; and liquidity management, currency trading, foreign exchange transaction, international and treasury banking, securities brokerage, mutual fund and investment management, and securitization services, as well as payment management and collection services. Further, the company provides financing for importers and exporters; and factoring, leasing, express payment, electronic banking, and online payment services. It operates a network of approximately 423 branches and 1,453 ATMs. Banco de Chile was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
#3 - Semiconductor Manufacturing Int'l (NYSE:SMI)
Consensus Rating: Sell
Rating Score: 1.4
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 4 Hold Ratings, 6 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: N/A
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, an investment holding company, engages in the computer-aided design, manufacture, testing, packaging, and trading of integrated circuits (IC) and other semiconductor services. The company offers various types of semiconductors, including logic, mixed-signal and radio frequency, power IC, microprocessor, memory related, optoelectronics, other sensors, discrete, and others. It also provides integrated solutions, such as design support services; libraries and intellectual property services; mask-making services; and wafer probing, bumping, assembling, and testing services. In addition, the company designs and manufactures semiconductor masks and solar cells related semiconductor products; and offers marketing related services. It operates in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.
#4 - Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.6
Ratings Breakdown: 1 Buy Ratings, 5 Hold Ratings, 5 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $76.5556 (-0.1% Upside)
Consolidated Edison, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in regulated electric, gas, and steam delivery businesses in the United States. The company offers electric services to approximately 3.4 million customers in New York City and Westchester County; gas to approximately 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of Queens, and Westchester County; and steam to approximately 1,600 customers in parts of Manhattan. It also supplies electricity to approximately 0.3 million customers in southeastern New York, and northern New Jersey; and gas to approximately 0.1 million customers in southeastern New York. The company operates 532 circuit miles of transmission lines; 39 transmission substations; 62 distribution substations; 85,835 in-service line transformers; 3,743 pole miles of overhead distribution lines; and 2,138 miles of underground distribution lines, as well as 4,395 miles of mains and 317,236 service lines for natural gas distribution. In addition, it owns, operates, and develops renewable and energy infrastructure projects; and provides energy-related products and services to wholesale and retail customers, as well as invests in electric and gas transmission projects. The company primarily sells electricity to industrial, commercial, residential, and governmental customers. Consolidated Edison, Inc. was founded in 1884 and is based in New York, New York.
#5 - KT (NYSE:KT)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.5
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 2 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: N/A
KT Corporation provides telecommunications services in Korea and internationally. The company offers local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance fixed-line and voice over Internet protocol fixed-line telephone services, as well as interconnection services; broadband Internet access service and other Internet-related services, including IPTV services; and data communication services, such as leased line and broadband Internet connection services to institutional customers. It also provides mobile voice and data telecommunications, credit card processing and other financial, and satellite TV and media content services. In addition, the company offers information technology and network services. Further, it plans and develops commercial and office buildings and condominiums, as well as leases buildings; maintains public telephones; manages sports groups; develops medicine and pharmacy; and sells communication devices. Additionally, the company offers security, B2C and B2B, investment fund, software development and data processing, Internet banking ASP and security, value added network, system integration and maintenance, mobile marketing, and PCS distribution services. It also provides TV content, residential building development and supply, asset management and consulting, cloud system, data center development, satellite communication, music contents investment, technology business finance, advertising agency, network installation and management, system integration and maintenance, foreign investment, electronic communication, and wireless high speed Internet services, as well as call center services for the financial sectors. As of December 31, 2017, the company served approximately 20,015,000 mobile subscribers and 7.5 million IPTV subscribers. The company was formerly known as Korea Telecom Corp. and changed its name to KT Corporation in March 2002. KT Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea.
#6 - Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.5
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 4 Hold Ratings, 10 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $39.50 (-0.8% Upside)
Campbell Soup Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets branded food and beverage products. It operates through three segments: Americas Simple Meals and Beverages, Global Biscuits and Snacks, and Campbell Fresh. The Americas Simple Meals and Beverages segment engages in the retail and food service of Campbell's condensed and ready-to-serve soups; Swanson broth and stocks; Prego pasta sauces; Pace Mexican sauces; Campbell's gravies, pastas, beans, and dinner sauces; Swanson canned poultry products; Plum food and snack products; V8 juices and beverages; and Campbell's tomato juices in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. The Global Biscuits and Snacks segment provides Pepperidge Farm cookies, crackers, bakery and frozen products in the United States retail; Arnott's biscuits in Australia and Asia Pacific; and Kelsen cookies worldwide, as well as simple meals and shelf-stable beverages in Australia and the Asia Pacific. The Campbell Fresh segment offers Bolthouse Farms fresh carrots, carrot ingredients, refrigerated beverages and refrigerated salad dressings; Garden Fresh Gourmet salsa, hummus, dips, and tortilla chips in the United States; and refrigerated soups. The company sells its products through retail food chains, mass discounters and merchandisers, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores, and dollar stores, as well as other retail, commercial, and non-commercial establishments; and independent contractor distributors. Campbell Soup Company was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
#7 - The Western Union (NYSE:WU)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.6
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 6 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $18.25 (-2.8% Upside)
The Western Union Company provides money movement and payment services worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Consumer-to-Consumer and Business Solutions. The Consumer-to-Consumer segment facilitates money transfers between two consumers, primarily through a network of third-party agents. This segment offers international cross-border transfers and intra-country transfers, as well as money transfer transactions through Websites and mobile devices. The Business Solutions segment provides payment and foreign exchange solutions, primarily cross-border and cross-currency transactions for small and medium size enterprises, other organizations, and individuals. The company also facilitates bill payments from consumers to businesses and other organizations, as well as offers money order and other services. It serves primarily through a network of agents. The Western Union Company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.
#8 - Torchmark (NYSE:TMK)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.6
Ratings Breakdown: 1 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $83.5714 (-5.1% Upside)
Torchmark Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various life and health insurance products, and annuities in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. It operates through four segments: Life Insurance, Supplemental Health Insurance, Annuities, and Investments. The Life Insurance segment offers traditional and interest-sensitive whole life and term life insurance, and other life insurance. The Supplemental Health Insurance segment provides health insurance products comprising Medicare Supplements, critical illness, accident, and limited-benefit supplemental hospital and surgical coverages. The Annuities segment provides single-premium and flexible-premium deferred annuities. The company sells its products through sales by direct response, exclusive agents, and independent agents, as well as through direct mail, electronic media, and insert media. Torchmark Corporation was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in McKinney, Texas.
#9 - LATAM Airlines Group (NYSE:LTM)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.6
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 2 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $14.50 (51.2% Upside)
LATAM Airlines Group S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides passenger and cargo air transportation services in Peru, Argentina, the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, rest of Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Air Transportation; and Coalition and Loyalty Program Multiplus. It provides passenger transport services to approximately 137 destinations in 24 countries and cargo services to approximately 144 destinations in 29 countries with a fleet of 307 aircraft. The company was formerly known as LAN Airlines S.A. and changed its name to LATAM Airlines Group S.A. in June 2012. LATAM Airlines Group S.A. was founded in 1929 and is based in Santiago, Chile.
#10 - NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.7
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 1 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: N/A
NTT DOCOMO, INC. (DOCOMO) is a mobile telecommunications carrier. The Company operates through three segments: telecommunications business, smart life business and other businesses. The telecommunications business segment includes mobile phone services (long-term evolution (LTE) (Xi) services and freedom of mobile multimedia access (FOMA) services), optical-fiber broadband service, satellite mobile communications services, international services and equipment sales related to these services. The smart life business segment includes video and music distribution, electronic books and other services offered through its dmarket portal, as well as finance/payment services, shopping services and various other services to support the Company's customers' daily lives. Its other businesses segment primarily includes Mobile Device Protection Service, as well as the development, sale and maintenance of information technology (IT) systems.
#11 - Pearson (NYSE:PSO)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.5
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 3 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: N/A
Pearson plc provides educational products and services to institutions, governments, professional bodies, and individual learners worldwide. The company operates through three segments: North America, Core, and Growth. It offers courseware services, including curriculum materials provided in book form and/or via access to digital content; and assessments, such as test development, processing, and scoring services. The company also operates schools, colleges, and universities; and English language teaching centers, as well as provides online learning services in partnership with universities and other academic institutions. In addition, it sells books; delivers and installs off -the-shelf software; and provides services to academic institutions, such as program development, student acquisition, education technology, and student support services, as well as undertakes contracts to process qualifying tests for individual professions and government departments under multi-year contractual arrangements. The company was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
#12 - Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.6
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 7 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $36.1818 (11.9% Upside)
Franklin Resources, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, institutions, pension plans, trusts, and partnerships. It launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries. The firm invests in the public equity, fixed income, and alternative markets. Franklin Resources, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in San Mateo, California with an additional office in Hyderabad, India.
#13 - Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 2.0
Ratings Breakdown: 3 Buy Ratings, 6 Hold Ratings, 3 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $27.9545 (-6.8% Upside)
Brown & Brown, Inc. markets and sells insurance products in the United States, England, Canada, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands. Its Retail segment offers property insurance relating to physical damage to property and resultant interruption of business, or extra expense caused by fire, windstorm, or other perils; casualty insurance relating to legal liabilities, professional liability, cyber-liability, workers' compensation, and commercial and private passenger automobile coverages; fidelity and surety bonds; and life, accident, disability, health, hospitalization, medical, dental, and other ancillary insurance products, as well as risk management, loss control surveys and analysis, consultation, and claims processing services. Its National Programs segment offers professional liability and related package insurance products for dentists, oral surgeons, hygienists, lawyers, certified public accountants, optometrists, opticians, ophthalmologists, insurance agents, financial advisors, registered representatives, securities broker-dealers, benefit administrators, real estate brokers and title agents, and escrow agents, as well as supplementary insurance products related to weddings, events, medical facilities, and cyber liabilities. This segment also offers outsourced product development, marketing, underwriting, actuarial, compliance, and claims and other administrative services to insurance carrier partners; and commercial and public entity-related programs, and flood insurance products. Its Wholesale Brokerage segment markets and sells excess and surplus commercial insurance products to retail insurance agencies. Its Services segment offers third-party claims administration and medical utilization management services in the workers' compensation and all-lines liability arenas, Medicare Set-aside, Social Security disability, Medicare benefits advocacy, and claims adjusting services. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.
#14 - Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.7
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 7 Hold Ratings, 3 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $63.6250 (-6.5% Upside)
Commerce Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for Commerce Bank that provides retail, mortgage banking, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses. It operates through three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth. The Consumer segment offers various banking products and services, including consumer deposits; consumer loans, such as automobile, motorcycle, marine, tractor/trailer, recreational vehicle, fixed rate and revolving home equity, and other consumer loans; patient health care financing; real estate loans; indirect and other consumer financing; personal mortgage banking; consumer installment lending; and consumer debit and credit bank cards, as well as provides online, mobile, and telephone banking services. The Commercial segment offers corporate lending, merchant and commercial bank card, leasing, international, and investment safekeeping and bond accounting services; and business products, government deposits, and related commercial cash management services, as well as sells fixed-income securities to individuals, corporations, correspondent banks, public institutions, and municipalities. The Wealth segment provides traditional trust and estate planning services, brokerage services, and advisory and discretionary investment management services, as well as manages a family of proprietary mutual funds, which are available for sale to trust and general retail customers. The company also offers private equity investment, securities brokerage, and insurance agency services. It operates through a network of 327 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado, as well as commercial offices. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.
#15 - Public Storage (NYSE:PSA)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.7
Ratings Breakdown: 1 Buy Ratings, 9 Hold Ratings, 6 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $208.3333 (3.2% Upside)
Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns and operates self-storage facilities. The Company's headquarters are located in Glendale, California. At June 30, 2018, we had interests in 2,402 self-storage facilities located in 38 states with approximately 160 million net rentable square feet in the United States and 228 storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 12 million net rentable square feet operated under the ?Shurgard? brand. We also own a 42% common equity interest in PS Business Parks, Inc. (NYSE:PSB) which owned and operated approximately 28 million rentable square feet of commercial space at June 30, 2018.
#16 - Wipro (NYSE:WIT)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 2.0
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 2 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: N/A
Wipro Limited operates as an information technology (IT), consulting, and business process services (BPS) company worldwide. The company's IT Services segment offers a range of IT and IT-enabled services, including digital strategy advisory, customer centric design, technology consulting, IT consulting, custom application design, development, re-engineering and maintenance, systems integration, package implementation, infrastructure services, analytics services, BPS, research and development services, and hardware and software design services to various enterprises. It serves customers in various industry verticals, such as banking, financial services, and insurance; health business; consumer business; energy, natural resources, and utilities; manufacturing; technology; and communications. The company's IT Products segment distributes third-party IT products comprising enterprise platforms, networking solutions, software and data storage products, contact center infrastructure, enterprise security, IT optimization technologies, video solutions, and end-user computing solutions. The company has research collaboration agreements with Tel Aviv University for core and applied research in image and text analytics using deep learning and sparse representation models and techniques; and IISc on technologies for autonomous vehicles. Wipro Limited was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Bengaluru, India.
#17 - Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 2.0
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 4 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $140.75 (-11.5% Upside)
VeriSign, Inc. provides domain name registry services and Internet security worldwide. The company offers registry services that operate the authoritative directory of .com, .net, .cc, .tv, .gov, .jobs, .edu, .name, and other domain names. Its registry services allow individuals and organizations to establish their online identities. The company also provides infrastructure assurance services, including distributed denial of service protection and managed domain name system services. It serves financial institutions, software-as-a-service providers, e-commerce providers, and media companies through direct sales and indirect channels. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
#18 - Kimberly Clark (NYSE:KMB)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.7
Ratings Breakdown: 0 Buy Ratings, 9 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $106.00 (-7.0% Upside)
Kimberly-Clark Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets personal care, consumer tissue, and professional products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Personal Care, Consumer Tissue, and K-C Professional. The Personal Care segment offers disposable diapers, training and youth pants, swimpants, baby wipes, feminine and incontinence care products, and other related products under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Depend, Plenitud, Poise, and other brand names. The Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins, and related products under the Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Viva, Andrex, Scottex, Neve, and other brand names. The K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, soaps, and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and Jackson Safety brands. The company sells household use products directly to supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drugstores, warehouse clubs, variety and department stores, and other retail outlets, as well as through other distributors and e-commerce; and away-from-home use products directly to manufacturing, lodging, office building, food service, and public facilities, as well as through distributors. Kimberly-Clark Corporation was founded in 1872 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
#19 - Telecom Italia (NYSE:TI)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.9
Ratings Breakdown: 3 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $6.1650 (-5.6% Upside)
Telecom Italia S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides fixed and mobile telecommunications services in Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and South America. It offers landline and mobile telecommunications, voice, messaging, data, Internet, and broadband services for consumers, as well as for small and medium-size enterprises, small offices/home offices, public sector clients, large accounts, and enterprises in the fixed and mobile telecommunications markets. The company also provides regulated and unregulated wholesale services for fixed and mobile telecommunications operators; infrastructure for housing radio transmission equipment of mobile telephone networks; and office products and services for information technology (IT), as well as develops, engineers, builds, and operates network infrastructures, IT, real estate properties, and plant engineering. In addition, it offers Ethernet, optical connectivity, and Internet protocol solutions; dedicated transport services; platform services to distribute multimedia content; wireless and satellite services through a radio channel; and IT products and solutions for business customers. Telecom Italia S.p.A. was founded in 1908 and is based in Milan, Italy.
#20 - Ventas (NYSE:VTR)
Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 1.9
Ratings Breakdown: 3 Buy Ratings, 9 Hold Ratings, 4 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $57.0714 (4.5% Upside)
Ventas, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a leading real estate investment trust. Its diverse portfolio of approximately 1,200 assets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom consists of seniors housing communities, medical office buildings, life science and innovation centers, inpatient rehabilitation and long-term acute care facilities, health systems and skilled nursing facilities. Through its Lillibridge subsidiary, Ventas provides management, leasing, marketing, facility development and advisory services to highly rated hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. References to ?Ventas? or the ?Company? mean Ventas, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted.
