Although the market still closed in the red for the week, it finished the week on a high note. The S&P 500 was up 1.1% on Friday, closing at 2,108.29. All the same, it’s too soon to assume the bulls are fully back in charge.
Not every stock was up on today, however. In fact, some were down dramatically. Among the biggest losers were LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) and Constant Contact Inc (NASDAQ:CTCT).
Here’s why.
LinkedIn (LNKD)
Less than a week after Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) suffered a similar drubbing, LinkedIn shares plunged more than 18% on Friday following a dire Q2 outlook despite a first-quarter beat of estimates. The company now expects a top line of between $670 million and $675 million for the current quarter, versus analyst expectations of $718 million. The full-year revenue forecast was only changed to levels modestly below analyst estimates.
While the lowered outlook was concerning, some analysts believe the market over-reacted with such strong selling of LNKD shares. Credit Suisse noted of the news, “Three out of four factors are ultimately transitory while the deterioration of LinkedIn’s premium display business is not an unfixable problem.”
Constant Contact (CTCT)
The fact that near-competitor Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) has been rumored to be a buyout target only magnifies the pain that Constant Contact shareholders are feeling today. CTCT fell 20% on Friday in the wake of weaker-than-expected revenue for Q1 and a lowered full-year outlook.
The good news is, Constant Contact earned 22 cents per share last quarter, versus estimates of 19 cents. The bad news is, revenue of $90.4 million fell short of the expected $91.1 million. Worse, now the company is looking for full-year revenue of between $371 million and $377 million, down from estimates of $388 million.
The real damage to CTCT, however, may have been spurred by a wave of downgrades of the stock. Rosenblatt, Barrington and Credit Suisse all lowered their opinions on Constant Contact on Friday following Thursday evening’s earnings announcement.
Fluor Corporation (FLR)
Despite falling short of top line and bottom line estimates for its first quarter of 2015, Fluor Corporation remained confident enough leave its full-year EPS guidance unchanged. The market, however, isn’t as confident, sending FLR shares more than 2% lower on this last day of the trading week.
Last quarter, the engineering and construction outfit earned 96 cents per share of FLR on revenue of $4.55 billion. The pros were looking for earnings of 98 cents per share and sales of $5.31 billion.
Still, Fluor believes it’s going to earn between $4.40 and $5 per share in 2015, as had been previously suggested.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
