Swiss broker UBS got the red pen out today for General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) after last week's results, cutting the rating to 'neutral' from 'buy'.
It also cut the target price to US$24 from US$31 previously.
Shares today fell 6.71% in New York to US$22.24 each, having tanked 7% on Friday.
Then the group posted third quarter earnings, which fell way short of expectations and it slashed its guidance for the full year.
Now investors are fretting about the dividend after the weak numbers.
“This was a very challenging quarter,” new chief executive John Flannery said in the statement.
The firm's new adjusted earnings per share (EPS) forecast for 2017 was cut to a range of between US$1.05 and US$1.10 a share, from between US$1.60 and US$1.70 a share previously.
Flannery replaced Jeff Inmelt in August, and he is faced with the unenviable task of trying to turn around the huge manufacturer's slump in fortunes, with issues including poor cash flows and slumping power-generation markets.
Its power business saw profits decline 51% to US$611mln, from a whopping $1.3bn at the same time last year.
After taking out the restructuring charges, the group earned 29 US cents per share from continuing operations in the third quarter, down 9% from the same period a year earlier. Analysts had expected the company to earn 49 US cents per share.