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The 24/7 Wall St./Flame Index: Companies With The Worst Press (4/29/2011
Published:
A great deal of the most harsh business press is related to Warren Buffett companies and the Sokol insider trading scandal. The puts Berkshire Hathaway and Lubrizol on the list
Allergan received negative coverage as it lost a $212 Botox damage suit.
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 | Sony Corporation | SNE | 41.156 | +4 | Press still critical about PlayStation Network hack |
| 2 | Berkshire Hathaway | BRK.A | 39.062 | +2 | Buffett tries to explain Sokol insider trades |
| 3 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 29.81 | -1 | Synthes buyout will cost $21.7 billion and does not fix JNJ OTC drug trouble |
| 4 | Toyota Motor Corporation | TM | 26.262 | -3 | Production still shuttered by quake |
| 5 | Bank of America Corp. | BAC | 25.735 | +2 | Earnings still rattle investors |
| 6 | Community Health Systems | CYH | 25.396 | -3 | Buyout of Tenet unpopular |
| 7 | American International Group | AIG | 25.343 | +5 | NY Fed sells $1.1 billion in AIG mortgage related bonds |
| 8 | Massey Energy | MEE | 25.305 | -2 | Buyout deal should close soon |
| 9 | Rite Aid | RAD | 23.949 | +1 | Tiny improvement in April same-store sales |
| 10 | CenturyLink | CTL | 23.166 | +55 | To buy cloud computer company Savvic |
| 10 | CenturyLink | CTL | 23.166 | +55 | To buy cloud computer company Savvis for $2.5 billion |
| 12 | Constellation Energy | CEG | 22.631 | +227 | Exelon to buy company for $7.9 billion and some investors feel cheated |
| 18 | Lubrizol | LZ | 20.431 | +56 | Buffett insider trading scandal |
| 22 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | 18.555 | +62 | Quarterly results underwhelm |
| 24 | Allergan | AGN | 17.968 | +228 | Loses $212 million Botox suit |
Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.
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