I work for a temp company at company "x"'s site.  I noticed recently that it looks like we'll be gaining a new client for our services, bank "B".  Upon perusing some financial sites, I noticed that Bank "B" upgraded company "x" a few months ago.

Is it right for Bank "B" to upgrade company "x" even though, I would assume, part of the reason for the upgrade is Bank "B" would be pouring some of their own money into it?

Cheers,

G

I don't know if institutional upgrades and investments by that same institution are related, but if some analyst working for that institution issues an upgrade, more than likely their client base will see that as good news and come with investment dollars in hand.  If the upgrade is public information (which is how you had found out about it), I'm sure other investors will put money into XYZ's stock.

One thing to watch for when working at publically traded companies is the procurement of inside information.  Just to be on the safe side, I would only make trade decisions based solely on what you find in the financial news.  Suppose you work for ABC and you are working on a deal to merge ABC and XYZ together and XYZ accepted the terms of the merger.  You can't use this information as a basis to buy XYZ because the merger information had not been announced publically.  Once ABC announces that they will merge with XYZ, then XYZ stock becomes fair game to you.

The question here seems to be more about the ethical actions of the companies. Based strictly on your example and no other details, it would seem to be at least unethical and depending on the details behind it, possibly illegal. However, proving the exact sequence of events and who knew what and when is unlikely to generate any real results.

On the insider trading note the k-man made, you need to be careful that the only basis for the trade being executed is the publicly available knowledge. If it can be proved that your decision to trade the stock was based on an inside knowledge, you could be subject to legal action. Again proving it would be most likely difficult, but it is a possibilty.