Broadpoint AmTech Downgrades Blue Nile (NILE) to Sell

January 12, 2009 11:14 AM EST

Broadpoint AmTech downgrades Blue Nile (Nasdaq: NILE) from Neutral to Sell and cut their price target from $21 to $15, saying Q4 was bad but the 1st-half of 2009 could be much worse.

Analyst Tim Boyd said, "In our 12/17 note, we highlighted 4Q08 channel checks and comScore data that suggested NILE could be on track to Miss consensus 4Q08 estimates by a wide margin. Then our tech team came away from last week's CES looking like it had seen a ghost. That ghost is the U.S. consumer. Nearly every one of the 40+ companies we met with were extremely bearish on the near-term demand outlook and noted that they would be cutting their workforces. This bodes very poorly for consumer confidence, which in turn bodes very poorly for NILE's 1H09 outlook. We believe that Street estimates for 2009 remain far too high, and with the stock still far from cheap, we believe a Sell rating is once again appropriate."

The firm is lowering 2009 revenue, EBTIDA, EPS and FCF per share estimates from $294.5mil, $28mil, $0.89 and $1.02 to $251.8mil, $23.5mil, $0.70 and $0.70, respectively.

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