Last Thursday, the Swiss financial services firm UBS Securities downgraded Entergy Corp.’s stock from “neutral” to “sell.”
Dividend Daily reported that UBS analysts made the decision “due to regulatory challenges ahead” for the operator of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
Currently, the Louisiana-based firm is fighting several legal battles with the state of Vermont that remain open: in the U.S. Court of appeals, before the Vermont Public Service Board and in front of the Vermont Supreme Court.
The UBS downgrade was delivered after the company’s stock value dropped 8 percent this past year.
In January, UBS released a report headlined: “Entergy guidance clearly illustrates no cash generation from nukes.” UBS suggested that closing Vermont Yankee and New York’s FitzPatrick plants would improve cash flow and potentially stave off deficits in 2015 and 2016.
After meeting with Entergy’s new CEO in early February, UBS released a report anticipating the company’s closure of one nuclear plant. UBS listed the company’s lowest capacity plant, Vermont Yankee, “as the most tenuously positioned.”
