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neutral definition - finance
A rating used by Wall Street analysts. Even though neutral implies the lack of an opinion, a neutral rating is a code phrase for a sell rating. The word sell is rarely used in order to avoid offending clients and preventing the investment bank that the analyst works for from winning future lucrative banking business from the client. The term market perform also may be used to indicate a neutral opinion.

Webster's New World Finance and Investment Dictionary Copyright © 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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