SoftBank Gets Downgraded After WeWork’s $9.5 Billion Rescue
- Jefferies cuts SoftBank rating, slashes price target by 19%
- Of 19 analysts tracking SoftBank, 17 have a buy rating
A WeWork location in London.
Photographer: Bryn Colton/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
SoftBank Group Corp. earned only its second Hold rating on Friday after a Jefferies analyst downgraded the Japanese conglomerate for engineering WeWork’s $9.5 billion rescue package.
Analysts covering SoftBank Group Corp. have been nearly unanimous in recommending investors to buy shares in Masayoshi Son’s company. That’s even as it faced billions of dollars in writedowns from a botched initial public offering by WeWork and a sharp decline in shares of Uber Technologies Inc. Now Son’s decision to double down on WeWork has prompted a rare voice of dissent to emerge.