iCapital Rating

Just got off from iCapital website. I've been seeing iCapital revised many of its stocks to hold over last few weeks but I did not make efforts to count.

Quarter 1 earnings reporting season coming to an end. I thought just do some counting to relax my mind after gone through rather a very hectic day - running meetings after meetings. This is what I got, of 190 stocks they cover, most of them are local small caps. As of 30 May 2008, 54% rated buy, 39% hold, 4% sell and 3% pending review. I guess it is not easy for an Investment Adviser to downgrade so many recommendations to hold: 39%! Hold usually signaling earnings momentum is slowing down or an inflexion point - can flip either way. Either they have whole bunch of wrong calls or operating environments have been exceptionally challenging -- many could not deliver.