Source: Reuters

According to an article on Reuters, Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett downgraded Sprint shares to "underperform" from "market-perform" saying that the company will face "new and larger risks" if Apple launches a high-speed iPhone later this year based on a technology that Sprint's bigger rivals will have installed more widely than Sprint.

"To be clear, we are not predicting a Sprint bankruptcy. We are merely acknowledging that it is a very legitimate risk. And notwithstanding a recent rally in Sprint shares, we believe that risk is rising," Moffett said in a research note.

Sprint declined to comment on the report, Reuters reported.

The article reported that Moffett said he does not expect Sprint to file for bankruptcy any time soon. But he cautioned that it is due to repay $2.6 billion of its debt in 2015, the same year $3 billion in debt comes due for Clearwire Corp, which is majority owned by Sprint.