Credit Suisse Downgrades Apollo Global Management Due To 'Challenging' Investment Environment

Craig Siegenthaler of Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO) on Tuesday to Neutral from Outperform with a $25 price target.

According to Siegenthaler, it will be difficult for the company's private equity business to deploy its $33 billion of “dry-powder” and also rebuild and deploy its $1.5 billion of carry interest receivables, which is 40 percent lower from its first quarter 2013 peak of $2.5 billion. Accordingly, the analyst estimates that the company's distributable earnings per share and economic net income may be down by 50 percent in 2015.

According to Siegenthaler, investors may be tempted to assume shares appear to be cheap at 11x five-year normalized cash earnings per share, however the stock's performance may not outperform other firms such as Blackstone that are "better positioned fundamentally" for the next 18 months.