Chipping away at Goldman

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The golden boys of Wall Street had a lousy week.

Goldman Sachs, which survived 2007 largely unscathed because of its small residential mortgage effort and favorable short trades, was on the receiving end of three critical analyst reports.

Analyst David Trone Friday became the latest to cast doubt on Goldman's first-quarter earnings, which are due out in mid-March.

The corporate debt markets are now having trouble and Goldman (GS, Fortune 500) has as much exposure to this arena as its Wall Street peers. So Trone of Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller slashed his first-quarter earnings estimate in half to $2.58 per share, down from $5.30 per share.

On Thursday, Sandler O'Neill downgraded Goldman to hold, from buy and reduced its stock price target to $195, from $260. The stock closed Friday at $178.41, up $1.85.

Analyst Jeff Harte of Sandler O'Neill said Goldman's share price will likely be hit harder than its competitors' since it has been trading at a "considerable premium over peers for the firm's apparent ability to outperform in a difficult environment."

The day before, Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo said he expected Goldman to bring in only $2.63 per share in the first quarter, down from $4.64 per share. He expects Goldman to take a nearly $3.5 billion writedown due to leverage loans and other investments.

Earlier this month, Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer downgraded Goldman to perform, from outperform, citing the 40% premium its shares were trading at compared with its peers.

A Goldman spokesman had no comment on the reports.