4 Companies That Punished Shareholders Last Week

May 15, 2016 by Chris Lange

As earnings season is almost over, the analysts that were expecting earnings disappointments for this season appear to be correct as many companies have fallen flat in the past few weeks. Reflecting back to the beginning of this season, S&P Global Market Intelligence made a call that earnings for the S&P 500 would shrink by about 8% in the first quarter, which at this point does not look like a bad call.

24/7 Wall St. has picked out a few of these companies that lost big this past week. Among the active stocks, these all issued or had news that pushed shares down. 24/7 Wall St. has included their recent trading history, as well as the 52-week trading range and the consensus analyst price target.

Now that the Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) merger with Office Depot Inc. (NASDAQ: ODP), both companies are seeing incredible fallout as their merger premium pricing is being removed by the markets. The merger was denied by regulators on an antitrust basis. As the regulators saw it, this would hurt competition within this segment of the retail industry. After this decision, these companies shot right to the top of the list of companies that destroyed shareholders.

Over the past week, the Staples share price was down 19%, while Office Depot’s stock dropped 40%. Shares of the former ended the week at $8.29, within 52-week range of $8.04 to $16.74. Staples has a consensus price target is $10.58. Office Depot closed Friday at $3.68, with a consensus price target of $5.55 and a 52-week range of $3.22 to $9.37

After the markets closed on Monday, SolarEdge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results. The company said it had a $0.51 in earnings per share (EPS) on $125.2 million in revenue. That compared to consensus estimates of $0.39 in EPS on revenue of $122.9 million. In the same period of last year, the company posted EPS of $0.20 and $86.4 million in revenue. SolarEdge also said it expects to have fiscal fourth-quarter revenues within the range of $125 million to $134 million and gross margins of 29% to 31%. Consensus estimates call for $0.48 in EPS on $134.54 million in revenue.

The stock pulled back about 21% last week and ended Friday at $17.51. Its consensus analyst target is $31.91, and the 52-week range is $15.02 to $43.00.

Also late on Monday, SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) reported its first-quarter 2016 results. The solar PV installer posted an adjusted diluted net loss per share of $2.56 on revenues of $122.6 million. In the same period a year ago, the company reported a net loss per share of $1.52 on revenues of $67.48 million. First-quarter results also compared to the consensus estimates for a loss per share of $2.31 on revenues of $108.44 million.

The company’s full-year forecast for new installation has dropped from a prior value of 1.25 gigawatts to a new range of 1.0 to 1.1 gigawatts. For the second quarter, SolarCity expects to install 185 megawatts, a 2% decline compared with a year ago. The company now expects a net loss per share of $2.70 to $2.80 per share, well below the consensus estimate for a net loss of $2.13.

Shares of SolarCity fell 10% last week to close out at $19.60. The consensus price target is $31.00, and the 52-week range is $16.31 to $63.79.

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