Ashok Kumar, a little known analyst from Collins Stewart, has been making many negative calls as of late.  This morning he downgraded Western Digital and Apple Inc., which may have caused those stocks to fall in the early morning hours on Wall Street.

This week, Kumar also had negative things to say about AMD after its report, and last week, he had negative things to say about Dell's business plans.  Mr. Kumar also stated last week that he thought the likelihood of IBM buying Sun Microsystems was "better than 50/50," before that deal collapsed.  He also downgraded Atheros last month, was earlier "disturbed" about Hewlett Packard's business, and also downgraded NetApp, saying "things have never looked worse," for that company.  Both companies have risen since those statements with NetApp's stock rising over 50%.

In between following many stocks, doing business with clients, and getting attention from the press, perhaps Mr. Kumar's stock picking skills are wavering and deserve better scrutiny.

Many fund managers pay more attention to the details in an analysis than the price targets and recommendations made by the analyst.  But those recommendations do have their effect.  Here at Market Rap, we like to follow sell side analysts who like to be heard, and hold analysts accountable for their quick trigger upgrades and downgrades, in order to measure and discuss their performance.

So look out Mr. Kumar, we have heard you and are now paying attention.  Good luck.