Why Whiting Petroleum (WLL), IHS (IHS) and Sonus Networks (SONS) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Rekindled inflation and strong sales of new homes wasn’t enough get the market into profitable territory today. The S&P 500 finished the session at 2091.5, down 0.6%.

It was much worse for some stocks, however. Take Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL), IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS) and Sonus Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:SONS), for instance. Not only were all three deep in the red, but optimists couldn’t even find the trace of a silver lining in what upended these names on Tuesday.

Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL)

Why Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL), IHS Inc. (IHS) and Sonus Networks, Inc. (SONS) Are 3 of Today's Worst StocksDepressed oil prices continue to dole out pain for drillers and explorers, not to mention investors. Independent explorer Whiting Petroleum became the latest victim today, with WLL shares plunging 19% on news the company would be issuing 35 million shares additional shares of WLL stock to raise some much-needed cash. That total is roughly 20% of the existing 167 million outstanding shares. The secondary offering will be made at $30 per share, which is near where currently-outstanding shares closed today after the steep 20% selloff.

Whiting Petroleum is also issuing $1.75 billion worth of debt to stay afloat, effectively squelching rumors that it was planning to divest part of itself to remain solvent until oil prices recover.

IHS Inc. (IHS)

Management-information software provider IHS Inc. not only didn’t do as well as hoped in its first fiscal quarter of 2015, it lowered its profit guidance for the full year. Shares slumped more than 7% on the news.

When all was said and done, IHS earned $1.36 per share, as expected. Revenue of $546.3 million, though up 4.2% compared to the year-ago Q1 top line, fell materially short of the expected $552.68 million.

IHS Inc. also lowered its per-share profit guidance for 2015, from a range of $6.10 to $6.30 to a new range of $5.77 to $5.97. IHS is now looking for sales to come in somewhere between $2.27 billion and $2.31 billion. Analysts had been expecting an average per-share profit of $6.18, and revenue of $2.36 billion.

Sonus Networks, Inc. (SONS)

Shares of telecom-networking technology provider Sonus Networks imploded, plunging 33% on Tuesday following a drastic cut in its earnings outlook for the current quarter.

Now the company expects to lose between 29 and 34 cents per share of SONS stock rather than posting the previously-expected profit of three cents per share. On top of that, revenue should roll in somewhere between $47 million and $50 million for Q1 — well shy of prior estimates of $74 million. In simplest terms, Sonus Networks was counting on orders that weren’t sure things after all.

There is some speculation that competitors such as Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) may have simply out-muscled SONS on the sale front. Even so, it’s an enormous drop in guidance that may underscore even bigger problems and risks for Sonus than investors had considered likely.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/03/whiting-petroleum-wll-ihs-ihs-sonus-networks-sons-3-todays-worst-stocks/.

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