TheStreet Ratings Top 10 Rating Changes

Limited Brands Inc (LTD) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, expanding profit margins and solid stock price performance. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income and weak operating cash flow.

• ACTIVE STOCK TRADERS: Check out TheStreet's special offer for Real Money, headlined by Jim Cramer, now!

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 1.12 is sturdy.
• 46.30% is the gross profit margin for LIMITED BRANDS INC which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 5.80% trails the industry average.
• Looking at where the stock is today compared to one year ago, we find that it is not only higher, but it has also clearly outperformed the rise in the S&P 500 over the same period, despite the company's weak earnings results. Despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year, there is currently no conclusive evidence that warrants the purchase or sale of this stock.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and greatly underperformed compared to the Specialty Retail industry average. The net income has decreased by 24.6% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $165.17 million to $124.56 million.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$183.00 million or 916.66% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.