Well Knock Me Over With A Feather... 'Apple, Amazon Downgraded 'On Moral And Ethical Grounds' - CNBC

[WillyT]

Apple, Amazon downgraded 'on moral and ethical grounds'
By: Katie Little - CNBC
Published: Monday, 6 Jan 2014 | 12:41 PM ET

<snip>

One analyst blacklisted several companies on Monday, citing a reason not often (or possibly ever) heard on Wall Street—moral and ethical grounds. In the report, Ronnie Moas, Standpoint Research's founder and director of research, downgraded Apple stock from a "hold" to a "sell," reiterated a "sell" recommendation for Amazon.com shares and initiated Philip Morris stock with a "sell" rating.

After holding in his feelings for "too long," Moas wrote that he couldn't sleep despite taking his nightly sleeping pill. At 1 a.m., he reached his boiling point and felt compelled to speak his mind. Moas' Standpoint bio page states he began his career as an analyst and market strategist at Herzog Heine Geduld, which was bought by Merrill Lynch in 2002, before leaving to start his own firm in 2000. Before this, he served for three years in the Israeli army and worked in concert productions.

"For Apple Computers to pay their workers $2 an hour while they have $150 billion in the bank is nothing short of obscene. I heard all of the arguments in their defense and they make no sense to me," wrote Moas in the note.

Thomson Reuters StarMine, which tracks and ranks analysts' performance, has no record of Moas' recommendations on Apple. According to published reports, he downgraded the stock in August from "buy" on valuation concerns.

While Moas said there are dozens (if not hundreds) of companies he would like to blacklist, he singled out just three in the report, noting that he planned to speak his mind even if it resulted in the destruction of his business.

More: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101312871

[Laelth]

1. Good. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[whathehell]

2. "On moral and ethical grounds?..Unbelievably good news...Perhaps even Hell has frozen over!!

[BuddhaGirl]

3. Good!

n/t

[Whisp]

4. Jobs can rot in his selfish, greedy hell.

"For Apple Computers to pay their workers $2 an hour while they have $150 billion in the bank is nothing short of obscene. I heard all of the arguments in their defense and they make no sense to me," wrote Moas in the note.

Yeh yeh, I know there are so many others, but it's a damn good start.

[OhioChick]

10. +1000 n/t

[Aerows]

47. But but but

Job creators!

[Whisp]

49. I think it's more 'but he's a lefty kind of guy' here than that.

Last edited Tue Jan 7, 2014, 12:10 PM - Edit history (1)

If you recall the PC suit guy vs the Mac cool guy ads.

gulliblity sells.

[HughBeaumont]

53. A "lefty" that fired people for looking at him wrong . . . for real.

Sounds no better than Bernie Marcus to me.

[Enthusiast]

54. But those $2 an hour workers are building character.

[mindwalker_i]

5. This is great news. Unfortunately...

The people who buy the stock don't give a flying f*** about the moral or ethical aspects of corporations as long as they're making money.

[WillyT]

8. I Hear Ya... But Now We Know, There's At Least One Person On Wall Street With A Conscience...

And we can hope that number grows.

[truebluegreen]

57. We should put that guy in charge of the SEC or something.

[another_liberal]

9. This is a huge PR hit for Apple.

A few more recommendations like this one, and the stock will start to fall.

[mindwalker_i]

20. I hope you're right

What would need to happen is for people, a.k.a. customers, to notice and stop buying their stuff. Then stock will take a serious hit.

[another_liberal]

25. Right.

Many people would think twice about an Apple purchase if they knew the reality of how those devices are made.

[enlightenment]

26. Interesting comments today on NPR -

in part:

"What I think to look for with Jamie Dimon is going to be, the company's latest earnings report. Ultimately on Wall Street and I think among the investors and these banks, they're an amoral bunch in the strictest sense of that term in that they do not care about the crime, they care about the stock price and the earnings."

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/do-big-fines-even-matter-jp-morgan-chase

[raouldukelives]

58. Indeed. It is where the rubber meets the road in terms of modern liberalsim.

Many people like to talk a robust, progressive image but how many actually live one? Probably quite a bit fewer than we like to hope.
Every dollar in Wall St is a vote for more of the same. Every investor providing the protective net of fiduciary responsibility to the entity they form a symbiotic relationship with.
As workers, the environment and wildlife are literally being crushed under the steel toes of wealth, they are there to provide extra pressure in the hopes of squeezing some of that wealth out for themselves.
As our natural world collapses, as people are left without fresh water and food, as our children look back at a treeless, desolate landscape and ask "Why?" they can thank the prudent investor. Only concerned for themselves and the futures of the DOW instead of the futures of their offspring, animals and the ecosystems they rely on.

[Whisp]

6. kick

[another_liberal]

7. One hundred fifty billion in the bank?

And they pay, "Their fair share of income taxes?" I do not think so.

[TBF]

11. FFS. When are we getting rid of capitalism

on "Moral And Ethical Grounds"? Missing the forest for the trees ...

[PowerToThePeople]

16. REC. n/t

[Demeter]

12. And then, there's the whole NSA as the frosting on the cake

and corporate complicity.

[Aerows]

48. There's a reason every single person in Congress

got a better return on stock investments than hedge fund managers. When you think about that, you realize what we are dealing with.

[think]

13. it's a start.... /nt

[Flatpicker]

14. About damn time

I'd like to see this happen for every company doing business.

Not just rating them on profitability, but on ethical standards.

[hedgehog]

15. This may be the start of something big!

[Lucky Luciano]

17. Meaningless from a completely unknown firm/analyst. nt

[WillyT]

18. And Yet Headlined On CNBC...

Wasn't meaningless to them.

[Lucky Luciano]

19. Amusing enough, but he is not influential. nt

[WillyT]

21. We'll See...

[Lucky Luciano]

29. Best way to check tomorrow would be

....to see how much AAPL underperforms versus the NASDAQ-100.

The beta of AAPL to the NASDAQ-100 is about 1.33, so underperformance on the NASDAQ-100 going down 1% would require AAPL dropping more than 1.33%.

[sabrina 1]

38. He is now! He has done something extraordinary and something a majority of the people will agree

with. His firm is now better known than any other not so well known firms. And we can keep it that way by supporting him and by referring to HIS firm from now on rather than others.

[Egnever]

44. Cause it is link bait

doesnt mean it's actually news worthy.

[ucrdem]

22. But it got into the business press.

My guess is it's part of the coordinated take-down of the US tech industry commonly known as NSA-gate, and NSA-gate is part of the permanent hit job on the Obama administration commonly referred to as Benghazi.

[Hissyspit]

31. What in the world are you going on about?

[WillyT]

32. LOL !!! - NSA Scandal Equals Benghazi ???

You really should read the Constitution.

[RC]

55. I think he forgot which web site he is on.

He really needs to keep his sticky notes updated.

[sabrina 1]

39. What???

[Ed Suspicious]

23. Apple shareholder?

[Lucky Luciano]

24. Nah. But analyst ratings don't move stocks unless it is a well known analyst. nt

[sabrina 1]

41. Well now that the world knows this man has some ethics and morality, his firm may well be about to

become the place to go for HONEST analysis.

[Lucky Luciano]

43. He didn't provide analysis as to why a stock would go down.

(perhaps he did, but it was not detailed here).

He simply stated that the companies were unethical. That does not mean the stock will go down.

Honest research from a nobody that became a somebody would be Carson Block at Muddy Waters who detected outright frauds through forensic accounting. One such short sale he called for cost John Paulson around $500MM - the company turned out to be a total fraud (Sino-Forest).

[Egnever]

45. LOL that analasys is pure emotion

Only an idiot would heed his advice.

[sabrina 1]

46. Why, what do you know about his work? We know he has a conscience, and that's a BIG thing

on Wall St. So give us your reasons, I'm sure they are not just 'emotional', as to why you say only an idiot would seek his advice.

[Egnever]

60. .are you really so naive

that you think concience is more important than things like PE ratios when it comes to investment. His sentiment is great but has no basis in reality when it comes to sound investment advice.

[mountain grammy]

27. Jobs was a brilliant man, but the hero worship disgusted me.

As a human being, he was zero. I've never owned any kind of Apple or i anything.

[Egalitarian Thug]

42. He was a great salesman and his deficit in humanity fits the model perfectly.

Woz is brilliant, Jobs just made him rich.

[pitchforx]

28. you can tell from the tone of the comments

on CNBC's website, that this guy hit a nerve with a lot of greedsters.
They should be worried, and they should hope that market forces start to rebalance income inequality. Because if "we the People" have to do it ourselves on a social level, the banksters are in big trouble.

[WillyT]

30. Bingo !!!

[berni_mccoy]

33. Interesting that Samsung invests in Ronnie Moas's company's charitable foundations...

http://seekingalpha.com/author/ronnie-moas/instablog

Casa Jimmy is a safe house that has to date supported more than 300 children. Casa Jimmy is just one of two-dozen causes that your donations will help support. See below for other projects Action for Brazil's Children (ABC) has associated themselves with. Gibson Guitars, Baglioni (Italian luxury hotel chain), Samsung, Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Group, and Selfridges (UK department store chain), are some of their corporate sponsors.

Yet Samsung's business practices are just as bad, if not worse than Apple's.

Wonder why he didn't downgrade Samsung...? I think this is less about calling out Apple's morals and more about doing someone a favor.

[WillyT]

34. Great Point... Maybe He's "Evolving" Like Our President... Yet...

While Moas said there are dozens (if not hundreds) of companies he would like to blacklist, he singled out just three in the report, noting that he planned to speak his mind even if it resulted in the destruction of his business.

"Philip Morris has the black lungs and blood of 500,000,000 people on their hands," he wrote, acknowledging that his email was controversial and would upset many.

"I recently read something about Amazon and how much pressure is on their employees … and at the same time Jeff Bezos with his obscene net worth of $27 bln was on his yacht in the Galapagos Islands. $27 bln and this man is not treating his workers fairly? It boggles the mind," Moas wrote.

From OP Link.

[madrchsod]

52. samsung has a diversified product line

apple is a one trick pony.

[DJ13]

35. Anyone notice the interviewer tried to hint that he was mentally unstable?

Typical Wall St slime tactic.

[ccinamon]

36. He left off the biggest moral deficient company EVER: Walmart!

I would be more impressed if Walmart and the other computer companies were also a part of his list...being so selective diminishes what he says.

[whathehell]

51. Please -- At least it's a start!

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. You asked

[spanone]

40. k&r...

[woo me with science]

50. K&R

[geek tragedy]

56. how many corporations merit a 'buy' rating based on moral grounds ? nt

[dawg]

59. Is $2 an hour in China really worse than $8 an hour in the U.S.?

At best, this sounds like a pathetic bid for attention. At worst, it is a cynical attempt to manipulate share prices ahead of earnings reports.