3 Companies That Destroyed Shareholders Last Week

August 28, 2016 by Chris Lange

As the markets have held near all-time highs, they have been somewhat stagnant, with the S&P 500 not moving over 1% in a single trading session for more than a month. As we have said before, some analysts believe that these highs are not fundamentally justified, and they might be right. This holding pattern very well could be in preparation for a potential rate hike in September, but at the very base level the markets are being held back by some companies.

Despite all the positive sentiment about market highs, quite a few companies still have struggled. Even though the market has made incredible gains, a few companies held it back from pushing even higher.

24/7 Wall Street has picked out a few companies posting the largest losses for the week. We have included a note on why the stock has lagged, as well as a recent trading history, consensus analyst price target and a 52-week trading range.

Mylan

Mylan N.V. (NASDAQ: MYL) appears to have created a new villain in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry in its CEO, Heather Bresch. The company is under fire over concerns of price gouging in regards to its EpiPen. Since 2008, the price of the EpiPen has risen about 400% to $500. The focus of the public outrage is the fact that executives at Mylan also received significant raises in their salaries during this time as well. In a recent CNBC interview, Bresch defended the company’s decision by pointing to increased costs along the supply chain. This price hike has yet to be analyzed and agreed justifiable by third parties.

It is also worth noting that the drop that Mylan shares experienced was also felt across the industry, but for the most part other companies did not hurt as much as Mylan did.

Over the past week, the stock dropped by 11%. Shares were trading at $43.03 on Friday’s close, with a consensus price target of $58.31 and a 52-week trading range of $37.59 to $55.51.

Zoe’s Kitchen

Zoe’s Kitchen Inc. (NYSE: ZOES) was perhaps one of the worst performing stocks in Tuesday’s session as the result of less-than-favorable fiscal second-quarter earnings that came out on Monday after the market close. At first glance, a 20% move in the stock from only a slight revenue miss seems like an overreaction. It doesn’t entirely make sense to give back over half of its gains in 2016 back just from a 1% revenue miss, especially when guidance was more or less in line.

The company said that it had $0.06 in earnings per share (EPS) on $66.3 million in revenue. The consensus estimates called for $0.06 in EPS and revenue of $67 million. In the same period of last year, Zoe’s posted EPS of $0.05 and $54.5 million in revenue.

In terms of guidance for the full fiscal year, the company expects total revenue in the range of $277 million to $280 million and comparable restaurant sales growth in the range of 4% to 5%. The consensus estimates for the fiscal year call for $0.13 in EPS on $280.28 million in revenue.

Over the past week, Zoe’s shares dropped by roughly 22%. The stock closed trading at $28.37 on Friday, with a consensus price target of $35.50 and a 52-week range of $23.17 to $41.76.

Express

Before the markets opened on Wednesday, Express Inc. (NYSE: EXPR) reported its fiscal second-quarter financial results. Overall, this was perhaps the single worst quarter that Express has seen in a while, or at least shares are behaving that way. Not only did the company miss estimates, but guidance was weak, and comparable sales were continuing to decline. There appears to be no real upside from anything in this report.

The company posted $0.13 in EPS on $504.8 million in revenue, versus consensus estimates of $0.17 in EPS on revenue of $520.95 million. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.25 and $535.6 million in revenue. During the most recent quarter, comparable sales (including e-commerce sales) decreased 8%, compared to a 7% increase in the second quarter of 2015.

In terms of guidance for the fiscal third quarter, the company expects to have EPS in the range of $0.09 to $0.15, as well as comparable sales in the negative high-single to low-double digits. The consensus estimates predict $0.32 in EPS on $538.24 million in revenue for the coming quarter.

Over the past week, the stock dropped by 28%. Shares were trading at $11.44 on Friday’s close, with a consensus price target of $14.50 and a 52-week range of $11.56 to $16.38.

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