Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the biggest U.S. securities firm before converting to a bank last year, was cut to “neutral” by Meredith Whitney, as the analyst dropped her only “buy” recommendation.

Whitney, who correctly predicted in 2007 that Citigroup Inc. would cut its dividend, didn’t update her price estimate on the shares in a summary note distributed to investors today. Further details on the downgrade weren’t immediately available.

The New York-based analyst upgraded Goldman Sachs to “buy” on July 13, since when the stock has risen 34 percent, compared with a 29 percent increase for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Investment Banking & Brokerage Index. The founder of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC said on Sept. 10 that Goldman Sachs “still has a lot of gas in its tank.”

Goldman Sachs shares dropped 0.9 percent to $188.46 in German trading as of 10 a.m. in Frankfurt.

Goldman Sachs, which is due to report third-quarter results on Oct. 15, may say it earned $4.46 a share in the period, according to the report. The New York-based bank posted record earnings in the second quarter.

Goldman Sachs’s profit probably almost tripled to $2.3 billion, according to the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue from trading has surged to a record as competitors including Morgan Stanley scaled back their riskiest bets.

Goldman Sachs has climbed 125 percent this year on the New York Stock Exchange, the largest increase among the biggest U.S. banks. The bank repaid $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury in June.