Employer

Earnings report & biotech

Affiliated Managers (AMG) was downgraded from Outperform to Market Perform, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said. Asset flows were disappointing during the quarter, and cut cut into future earnings.

see above

Upgraded by Barrington Research from Market Perform to Outperform

Downgraded by AG Edwards from Buy to Hold

PT 150

fast money

From Strong - but Stretched - Market:

Anyone who likes Fortress (the buyout and hedge-fund shop's IPO was a rousing success last week) ought to love Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), a well-run owner of quality asset-management operations. It's nicely diversified by product line and asset class (including some hedge funds) and trades for near 16 times 2007 earnings. AMG has been among the best-performing stocks of the past decade.

It doesn't carry the questionable cache of owning a piece of the first alternative-asset manager to hit the NYSE, but it provides a more balanced play on the always-lucrative asset-management business."

i like it

The company is expected to lay off over 5,000 employees by early 2008. Their ship is sinking.