Brokerage Downgrades: It's About Time

Merrill Lynch downgraded three brokerage stocks this morning from Buy to Neutral (BSC, C, and LEH), saying that "08 forecasts appear increasingly unrealistic for most."  We can't imagine that this is a surprise for too many people, and we've been looking for these downgrades for some time now.  Unfortunately, it's usually too little too late when these downgrades come.  Below we highlight the performance of the three stocks since the analyst originally upgraded them to buys.