Is Goldman Losing Its Luster?

Yet another analyst has downgraded Goldman Sachs. Do they see something you don’t?

On Friday Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics downgraded Goldman to neutral citing poor quality of earnings.

That seems a little counterintuitive considering Goldman beat earnings expectations by 23 percent on a per share basis.

But he tells Fast Money, “The thing I didn’t like out of the recent earnings is that we saw the core investment banking business is down. They made the number and exceeded everyone's estimates on trading. If you want to invest in a hedge fund I can find cheaper ways to do it.”

And Whalen’s bearish call follows the widely noted downgrade earlier in the week by uber bank analyst Meredith Whitney. She says “while we are fundamentally constructive on Goldman Sachs over the long term, we prefer to invoke a 'why be greedy' rationale and lock in profits at these levels.”

And it’s hard to deny that shares have climbed 120% ytd. But don’t let Steve Grasso hear you say it’s time to lock in profits.

“It seems to me that the pullback is an opportunity to buy.You’ll thank yourself over the next couple of weeks,” he says.

And no, he’s not just blindly bullish.

“It would be a mistake to lock in profits in financials,” he explains. “I expect to see a real chase for performance in November and December and I'd place my bets accordingly.”

What do you think? We want to know!

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Trader disclosure: On Oct. 16th, 2009, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s Fast Money were owned by the Fast Money traders; Najarian Owns (HGSI) Call Spread; Najarian Owns (XLF) Calls; Najarian Owns (YHOO) Call Spread; Najarian Owns (BAC); Najarian Owns (WFT) Calls; Grasso Owns (ASTM), (BAC), (C), (COST), (PRST), (V), (WMT), (FAZ), (XLF), (AAPL); Terranova Owns (SUN), (OIH), (HOC), (HES), (POT); Terranova Is Short (GRMN), (CCL)

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