The ratings agency said "a fair amount of Sears' operating difficulties remain self-inflicted, in particular on the softlines side." The company's chance at offering low pricing and high quality merchandise were lost fairly soon after Eddie Lampert put Sears and K-Mart together. He and his management were never able to challenge the Wal-Mart and Target models of "everyday low pricing". Much of the company's cash was used for share buy-backs. The recent replacement of the SHLD CEO is merely window dressing. The company has been unable to explain how it plans to dig itself out of this hole. The stock is down over 55% over the last 12 months.