Is Citigroup Laying Off Analysts?

Reports are coming in that Citigroup (C) is laying off analysts globally and is cutting the number of companies it covers by 7%. 11 U.S. analysts are reported to have been given their walking papers today including the departures of Joshua Attie, Brad Ball, Shannon Cowherd, Chip Dillon, Paul Heldman, John Hill, Paul Mansky, David Raso, George Shapiro, Tony Wible and Leone Young. A person familiar with the matter said Paul Heldman was also laid off.

Coverage of some stocks will be moved to other analysts but SIRI will not be one of them. A report from Satwaves.com reveals that Citi has dropped coverage of Sirius XM (SIRI) stating:

• Tony Wible has left Citi. As a result, we are discontinuing coverage of Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI).
• The firm’s last recommendation for the company was Buy/Speculative Risk and our target price was $3.75.
• This was our last rating on Sirius XM Radio Inc; we have not provided, and will not be providing, updates to our previous research or ratings. Because facts and circumstances may have changed, the information and analysis contained in this research may no longer be applicable or accurate. Accordingly, you should not rely on this or previous research with respect to this company going forward.

Tony Wible has been the most bullish anaylst of Sirius XM, and he will certainly be missed here at SiriusBuzz.

Comments

[relmor]

A bullish Sirius analyist gets fired. Could be something there, but I doubt it. It just doesnt warrent an "industry" status, it can be covered by media analysists just fine.

[apppro]

I guess we have to surmise that the entire Citi selloff and therefore the entire current financial crisis was due to this anal-ysts bullish recommendations on SIRI. He was going with the anti-Goldman view so they took down Citi to get this guy fired.
lol

[shure46]

They probably just figured there's nothing to report on siri ......they got tired of reporting "Siri up a penny" "Siri down a penny" for the last three months !!!!!!!!

[sl62]

Though this could seem important at first glance, it means nothing. His opinion was just that and had no bearing whatsoever on the movement of this stock. The only opinion that has ever mattered was that of GS...duh, I wonder why?

The reason Citi does not reallocate the coverage is because it would be senseless at this time for them to do so. They are restructuring and consolidating and will focus only on the majors right now. SIRI is unto themselves a this point. Their survival, viability, and all the rest are in their hands. Rick or Doug's stupid opinions are as worthless as Tony's at this time. It is ALL on SIRI--period. They either are going to execute and make this whole thing work for them or not. We will all see. I believe they will.

To add to the intrigue this week, now we finally have words from Mel and can only take him at his word. An article was posted yesterday regarding the stark difference between Toyota's head guy and Mel. Toyota's current outlook is dire and gloomy while Mel is the glass half full saying he can get it all done for the company, even in this environment. Is Mel just a delusional salesman or can he back up what he says unequivocally? I have thought about this since reading the article yesterday and I have come up with this logic. I believe Mel would be glass half empty if that were warranted. We have already seen them do that in their last guidance call and in the media. Yes, Mel is an eccentric guy and hard to read at times because his track record of public comments isn't what one would call "always level-headed". Is he being overly optimistic? Well, you have to look at things this way. This is a crap environment for everyone. Every company has only two choices: to either spin optimistic or pessimistic. If I were needing to make a choice, I would always pick the optimisitic (if it were the truth). So keeping that in mind and adding new logic, I'm on board with Mel as I always have been. I like that he's being optimisitc. More than I could say for Bernanke or Paulson. Nothing wrong with optimism if it's truely at the root. If as the head of anything, if you don't say "I believe," who else will? As for Mel, I think if it were all that dour, he would say it. I don't think he would be able to contol himself. Mel has never been a fantasy guy. He tells it like it is pretty much all the time IMHO...

As far as analysts go. Besides GS, NO analyst opinion means jack anymore (in case you haven't noticed), so no worries about Tony. Maybe he'll show up for another firm and inititate on SIRI. For that matter, if SIRI delivers in upcoming months, not only will others intiate, but you will also see Citi re-initiate. All firms want the pub of covering winners and success stories. If (when) SIRI proves once again to be that, the media and analysts will be banging the door down. Also keep in mind, Cramer still looms out there in the weeds where SIRI is concerned. Back in August, in his last references about SIRI, he said, stay away from teh stock until after the refi. Once this is complete, I suspect he will be back on the bandwagon telling all his sheep constituency that SIRI once again looks like a buy buy buy! That would be better than anything Tony W. has ever done for SIRI stock--no offense to Tony, he has been an appreciated ally! Thanks Tony and good luck to you wherever you go from here.

Oh and as an aside to TMF's Rick A., he is now using our beatdown comments for his own stories. Meaning he's out of material, so he will use ours. Knowing that, I will no longer be posting on his articles. I offer others consider the same. Why help him keep his job? I'd rather just let him twist in the wind until he's forced out due to being a hebitude.

[SIRI, go up!]

junk stock!

[Up the tail pipe again.]

Figures that the only analist we have in SIRI long's favor gets fired. I agree that analist have no clout these days but us SIRI stock holder's take it up the tail pipe one more time. Hope Mel can get the job done.

[Up the tail pipe again.]

Not much tail pipe left.

[killerkaul]

sl62..................... a hebitude! Too funny. .. killer.

[Mr. Stupid]

Please, your'e all bunch of wigwags on this. Sirius is not a major contributor to Citigroups analyst projections. That's why they dropped it. Coverage is initiated my interest and with Sirius trading less than cost of a stamp the interest is waning. Niche market for Sirius? It's already one because you have many media choices out there.

Ping

[venividivici]

Look I haven't even bothered to read this article, i have just read the heading. Anal ysts should be taken out and then be hung, drawn and quartered. And that will be be not the slightest loss to the financial world.They are just a bunch of pathetic cheerleaders, end of story. A lot of things have to change for this market to restore any credibility with the real world. The complete removal of anal ysts would be a start.

[siriusly depressed]

WOW, the confidence if SIRI is melting away extremely fast, even from those who were the most confident............

[GetSIRI]

Im still confident. Listening it on my workstation and my dull drab existance of a cube.

[Well This Might Be SIRIUS?]

I'm still very confident... Just seems that everyone took a break yesterday.... sl62 i don't think posted once...killer had no stories... and cos and relmor didn't post any stats...

[Well This Might Be SIRIUS?]

Is that BusinessWeek article serious??? They are still talking about the merger..?

[killerkaul]

Calm down everyone................. siri is still a screamin buy. The guys are just working on averaging down to maximize future profits, middle to end of Nov. upswing . Get to work on buying more at these penny prices. The Dog and I have "GS" backed into a corner as we speak,................... from the looks of the Dog they're not comin out. ... killer.

[GetSIRI]

Killer - if averaging down is the battle plan, pull the dog back and let the GS guys walk. They release another negative report, we all buy more stock, then the dog returns and rips their throats out one by one as we all get rich.

[SIRI, go up!]

I will die.

[SIRI, go up!]

If you want to die as soon as possible, buy SIRI.

[Mr. Stupid]

Seen bankrupt companies trading higher. Market was up over 400 today and Sirius? Down 3 cents. Now that's pathetic.

The title of this article is a joke. I at first thought someone had posted an old blog. By this title I guess we all have been in coma that last 4 months and didn't know the merger had gone through.

[still sirius]

225305

What a dipstick you are...Did you even read the article. It has nothing to do with the merger...What an idiot....Please go trolling in someone else's backyard...I think that I can speak for most everyone else on this blog...Go away...and take Siri Go Up with you!!!

[cos1000]

Hey guys, averaging down is my plan but I am not doing it with new money anymore. We need to get 3rd qtr out of the way and some solid news on the refinancing. I sold shares at .53 on Monday and bought back today at .41 today. Never seem to catch the actual top or bottom but at this price a .12 cent swing is a 25% increase in shares. Sold around 12K shares and picked 15K today. That's about all you can do while you wait for execution on business plan, refinancing etc. The market is volatile and all you can do is take advantage. Can't worry to much about being exactly right on the up side or on the down. Set a percentage and stick to it. Greed is the only thing that will have you miss accumulating shares. The big pay off for your work will come when the company executes well and refinances debt.

By the way this article is not news of any real concern. GS is in control as stated above by s162. When they turn to the up side this stock will run. They hold a lot, 127M worth, of the Feb 09 debt. When this debt goes away look for GS to turn long on this stock, even a very cautious Market Perform from Weinkes going to 1.25 - 1.50 target would be a great sign. I wouldn't expect anything like that until Mel has the debt resolved.

I posted this on the other article this morning but haven't heard much discussion about it. I guess all the focus is on Paulson buying bank shares for us citizens:

SEC Imposes New Short Selling Rules:

sec.gov/news/press...

The Commission's actions will apply to the securities of all public companies, including all companies in the financial sector. The actions are effective at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008.

"These several actions today make it crystal clear that the SEC has zero tolerance for abusive naked short selling," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "The Enforcement Division, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, and the Division of Trading and Markets will now have these weapons in their arsenal in their continuing battle to stop unlawful manipulation."

There is more in the article and additional rules that were adopted. The complete set of rule changes are located at the link above.

[cos1000]

killerkaul, I didn't have the nerve to keep my buy at .39. Probably would have gotten it but I was happy with .41. Who really knows? I got to admit I was nervous with my shares turned to cash, what little is left. I Did knock .10 / share of my cost basis and I guess that's what's important right now as you already know.

still sirius, nicely said.......

[killerkaul]

Cos ............. do you think that the SEC will do a good job of reinforcing this new ruling, or wait till the public has forgotten what has been done to them, so that they can again turn an arrogant blind eye to the shorting. Just curious.

[still sirius]

Cos1000

The link you listed above did not work. Are there new shorting rules going into effect. Does it affect sirius?

[still sirius]

Posted on a sirius buzz blog...Shareholder meeting in Dec to require vote on further diluation of sirius stock from 4.5B to 8B shares and reverse split of 10/1 - 50/1. getting real nervous!

[still sirius]

Tyler/Brandon

Do you have any insight about the shareholders meeting in Dec?

[cos1000]

I recopied the link from the other article. Try this:

www.sec.gov/news/press...

[cos1000]

killer...... I really don't know. I do feel the change in regulations puts the ability to enforce and punish in place. It also puts more penalty on the Broker Dealer, eliminating their ability to short any stock not just the one the violation was recorded for. Its a start..... with a new administration coming in a lot can get lost in the shuffle.

still sirius, thanks for the heads up on the annual meeting and those amendments to be voted on.... just started reading the filing and must say it concerns me without some further explanation.

[still sirius]

Cos1000

Do you think that this is Mel being Mel and trying to use the dilution to gain a better financing deal. I don't understand the ins/outs of the debt issue. I do understand that dilution and a reverse split would destroy what little value we as shareholder s have. Any thoughts!!!!!

[still sirius]

Post above should read fully underdstand the ins/outs of the debt issue.

[James Wilson]

Any anal st who did not see the collaspe of housing never got out of the office and was only a cheerleader for who ever paid him. Just one check into the business operations of Country Wide would have shown a constant over valuation of propertys by 30% at least.

My 10 years old would have been a better anal st

[cos1000]

still sirius, I share your pessimism on the dilution of shares through both actions being asked for by Mel and the Board. The reverse split authorization does not mean that it must occur. Next week we are going to get a notice of non compliance from Nasdaq and the 180 day clock will begin to tick. Appeal this 180 day and getting an extension for another 180 days requires a written plan to bring the stock price above a $1. The reverse split would be included in this plan. A lot can happen prior to a RSplit and seeking authorization is prudent at this time but heightens my apprehension. The additional shares is also required in order to have all options for financing open but does not bode well for common shareholders.

I need to hear from Mel before I can decide how or what I will do. I find it very difficult for me to support either action. I am not a fan of either reality but here we are.

[still sirius]

Cos1000

Do you think Mel will actually address this in the qtr3 conference call? Was planning to average down again...On hold now.

[notsosmart]

if you get rid off all the anal sts. who would miss them? not me.all phonies & not to be paid attention to.(bad sentence,sorry).think for yourself. all have an agenda.if they were any good they would not be working but out on their yachts.