DURHAM – Cree’s stock continues to slide as another Wall Street firm has downgraded its shares in the wake of Cree’s confirmation that the trade war with China is hitting its semiconductor and Wolfspeed product sales.
The latest is Piper Jaffray, which cut Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) to “underweight” from “neutral.” The news sent Cree shares down more than 2 percent in pre-market trading on Monday.
Shares traded at $46, down $1.10, shortly before the markets opened then fell more than 5 percent to as low as $44.65 in late-morning trading.
Analyst Harsh Kumar also sliced Cree’s share price target to $38 from $57.
What if China ‘just never came back?’ Cree CEO warns of trade war, Huawei ban impact
The move came just days after Piper Jaffray reaffirmed a “neutral” rating with a target price of $57, down slightly from $60.
Business news site SeekingAlpha notes that Cree’s shares are down 10 percent over the past six months – three times worse than the median performance of information technology shares.
Last week, JMP Securities cut Cree to “market perform” from “market outperform,” citing Cree’s recent financial guidance which SeekingAlpha termed as “downside.”
But Osha is not overly pessimistic about the stock. He sees “no identifiable changes to Cree’s strong competitive position.”
Yahoo Finance notes Canaccord Genuity, BMO Capital and Deutsche Bank maintained their views of the stock.
