A recommendation downgrade was the catalyst behind Veeva Systems's (NYSE: VEEV) sub-par performance on the stock market Wednesday. Following the chop, Veeva's stock ended the day almost 3% lower, which was notably worse than the essentially flat trajectory of the S&P 500 index. 

The downgrade was from white-shoe investment bank Morgan Stanley in the person of prognosticator Craig Hettenbach. He now feels Veeva is deserving only of an underweight (read: sell) tag; prior to that, he had rated it as equalweight (hold). Hettenbach's price target on the shares is $181 apiece.

In a new note, the analyst expressed concern about looming competition from a heavyweight competitor in the customer relationship management (CRM) space. He wrote that "We expect Veeva's lock on the Life Sciences CRM market to be tested by Salesforce, representing the most formidable threat yet."

Continue reading

Source Fool.com