Zacks Ranks Fannie a 'Sell'

Zacks.com has announced the assignment of a Sell ranking to the stock of Fannie Mae, citing its "deteriorating financial profile." The Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) is assigned to stocks that the research firm says should "most likely be sold or avoided for the next one to three months." The company noted that Standard & Poor's recently cut its preferred stock rating on Fannie Mae from A to A-plus, saying it "presented significant risk to the government." Zacks said Fannie is also "pressured by continued home price declines in key markets, higher credit-related expenses, and capital challenges" and has cut its dividend to conserve capital in view of expectations of further losses from mortgage defaults and foreclosures. "In the last week, analysts have lowered their current-year estimate to project a loss of $6.01 per share," the research company said. Zacks can be found online at http://www.zacks.com.