S&P Downgrades Robert Half (RHI) to Strong Sell from Hold

S&P Downgraded temp giant Robert Half

to Strong Sell from Hold today based on their belief of a slower recovery in labor markets here and abroad. Here is a quote from the report: “We still think RHI's business is in the early stages of a recovery, but labor revivals are developing slower than we had expected in RHI's primary U.S. and European markets. On the disappointing U.S. labor data of recent months, we are cutting our EPS estimates by $0.05 each, to $0.40 in '10 and $0.70 in '11. On our lower estimates and belief that a more modest valuation will be applied to RHI shares, we cut our target price by $10 to $20, 28.6X our '11 estimate, which still remains in the top half of RHI's historical range when emerging from recession./M. Jaffe