Smithfield shares sink as credit rating, stock are downgraded

Smithfield Foods Inc.’s shares sank 19.5 percent, or $4.80 each, to $19.85 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced Friday that it was dropping its corporate credit rating for Smithfield to BB-minus from BB-plus. And Analyst Timothy Ramey of D.A. Davidson & Co. also downgraded Smithfield stock to “underperform” from “neutral,” predicting the shares would fall to $14 in a year to 18 months, according to Bloomberg News.

Smithfield’s stock has plummeted 37 percent this month. The hog producer and processor, based in Smithfield, Va., reported in early June that fourth-quarter income fell 94 percent, partly because of soaring corn prices.

Its stock hasn’t traded below $20 a share since October 2003.