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The 24/7 Wall St./Flame Index: March 26 The Companies With The Most Bad Press
Published:
Lennar (NYSE: LEN) received a large amount of bad press after it was disclosed that an outsider had been accused of insider trading in the company’s shares Alcatel Lucent’s (NYSE: ALU) image was rubbed on concerns about whether client AT&T (NYSE: T) would continue to use its services.
Two companies, Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) each received a large jump in negative press mentions just after they released earnings. As a matter of fact, RIMM shares fell 10%.
Note: The Flame Index scans thousands of news sites 24 hours per day and ranks companies getting the most negative press right now. The Flame Index Media Analysis Algorithm crunches the data for an up-to-the-minute ranking of the hardest-hit companies.The Flame Index started as a research tool in 2008 at the NY Innovation Design Lab (nyidlab). It was used as a general metric to evaluate companies and their risk in the media. Publicly traded Fortune 500 companies are used as a measure to calculate an overall market of negative news and the companies are ranked within that market
| Rank | Company | Ticker | Score | Change in Rank | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 45.22 | +15 | Lingering concerns about recalls and product quality |
| 2 | Lennar | LEN | 43.067 | +166 | Insider trading charges brought against outsider |
| 3 | Toyota Motor Corporation | TM | 38.925 | +4 | Plants in Japan still idle |
| 4 | Rite Aid | RAD | 36.961 | +14 | Competitor Walgreen gets good buy with drugstore.com |
| 5 | Honda Motor Company | HMC | 36.281 | +7 | Plant slowdowns due to quake |
| 6 | Alcatel Lucent | ALU | 32.319 | +43 | Concerns about lost business due to AT&T deal to buy T-Mobile |
| 7 | Barnes & Noble | BKS | 31.527 | -5 | Decides it cannot find a buyer |
| 8 | Bank of America Corp. | BOA | 31.372 | -4 | Fed rejects attempts to reinstate dividend |
| 9 | GOOG | 31.011 | -8 | New version of Android slowed | |
| 10 | Fannie Mae | FNMAS | 30.511 | -7 | Concerns about insolvency |
| 2 | Lennar | LEN | 43.067 | +166 | Insider trading |
| 6 | Alcatel Lucent | ALU | 32.319 | +43 | AT&T supply interruption? |
| 17 | Research In Motion Limited | RIMM | 24.724 | +718 | Awful earnings forecast |
| 18 | Oracle | ORCL | 24.009 | +81 | Earnings news |
| 24 | Best Buy | BBY | 22.321 | +141 | Awful earnings |
Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.
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