BUZZ-Pearson: another bruising on dividend concern

** Pearson (Xetra: 858266 - news) down about 5%, having fallen by same amount on Tuesday

** Bottom of FTSE 100 in heavy volume as analysts express concern over dividend guidance

** Panmure downgrades stock to "sell" from "hold"; cuts TP to 525p from 625p

** "The guidance suggests a dividend of around 15p for FY17 (compared to previous market expectations of 20-31p), rising to perhaps 18p at the most by FY19E. This implies a dividend yield range of 2.3%-2.7% and essentially takes away any yield support for the stock," Panmure says

** Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) and Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) cut TPs to 730p and 647p, respectively

** Credit Suisse says it understands co wants the DPS to be safe and progressive and is returning cash via the buyback, but given media sector has a yield of >3.5% this is a little unhelpful to the investment case which mostly relies on acceleration in Higher Education

** Stock fell Tuesday after a conference call on Penguin Random House disposal which Liberum said did not seem to have gone well with investors - broker flagged comments on dividend

** Pearson remains among most borrowed UK stocks by short-sellers, despite almost 40% selloff from a July 2016 peak, with ~7% of shares outstanding on loan, per Markit (NasdaqGS: MRKT - news)