Goldman Sachs lets go of analysts including Tanona

NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N), which cut almost 3,300 jobs last week, identified six equity analysts laid off by the firm, including William Tanona, who covered companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

Charles Chon, Deane Dray, Ajay Kejriwal, Lawrence Keusch and Peter Wahlstrom also were let go by the firm, according to a note Goldman sent to clients. The companies they covered -- which ranged from General Electric Co. (GE.N) to Tyco International (TYC.N) -- are being transferred to another analyst, suspended or dropped.

Among the companies affected by this change, coverage on General Electric and Tyco will be transferred to a new analyst, JPMorgan and Citigroup (C.N) are among the companies that will be suspended while Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX.N) and Agilent Technologies (A.N) are among the companies being dropped from coverage.

Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday declined to comment.

The New York-based firm had a record 32,569 employees in August and the latest cuts reduce headcount by 10 percent and to the lowest level since 2006. Goldman has managed to avoid the kind of losses from mortgages and corporate loans that have hobbled rivals, yet Goldman still has suffered from the steep decline in merger and underwriting activity, as well as plunging prices for stocks and other investments.

In fact, Goldman could post its first ever quarterly loss as a public company in December, as market turmoil weighs on revenue for investment banking businesses and forces asset writedowns.

Morgan Stanley analyst Patrick Pinschmidt forecast a loss of $1.09 a share for Goldman, the steepest decline projected by an analyst. UBS analyst Glenn Schorr changed Goldman's estimate to a loss of 40 cents a share from a gain of $1.40 a share. Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski expects Goldman to post a fourth-quarter loss of 49 cents a share.

Monday, Goldman shares hit a new 52-week low, down 11 percent at $69.20. In comparision, Goldman went public in 1999 at $53 a share. (Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)