Ashtead took a hit on Wednesday after a double downgrade by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which cut the stock to 'underperform' from 'buy' and slashed its price target to 1,000p from 1,300p, pointing to a "triple whammy" of worrying trends. "We have become increasingly concerned that the rental rate environment has weakened in recent months and the outlook for further rate growth from the current cyclical peak looks increasing unlikely," the bank said.