U.S. flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries Inc. is the defendant in a class action lawsuit alleging securities violations, including making false and misleading statements, by the company and certain of its officers. While the validity of the claims is yet to be determined, defense may divert management attention and financial resources at Mohawk in the intermediate term, potentially weakening profit margins and credit ratios. As a result, we are revising the outlook to negative from stable and affirming our 'BBB+' issuer credit rating on Mohawk. The negative outlook acknowledges that key credit ratios already weakened modestly in the past two fiscal years with the potential for further deterioration in EBITDA margins and EBITDA, whether related to the litigation or otherwise, to
