Why Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AGIO), Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Mostly spooked by rekindled fears of what Greece’s impending default could mean, investors were more than happy to continue scaling back on their holdings on Monday. All told, the S&P 500 fell 0.46% on Monday, closing at 2,084.43.

Why Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AGIO), Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) Are 3 of Today's Worst StocksFor owners of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AGIO) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR), though, the start to the new week was much, much worse. Here’s why.

Micron Technology (MU)

The critics clearly weren’t done beating up Micron Technology.

With MU stock already down nearly 30% since peaking in early December, on Friday, Pacific Crest officially lowered its price target on the stock. Analyst Monika Garg now says shares of the memory chip maker are only worth $32 apiece, down from the firm’s prior target of $39.

Garg observed:

“We believe DRAM (dynamic random access memory) supply growth will be around 25% this year, but Micron’s could be around the middle teens as Micron has been moving capacity from PC DRAM to mobile.”

Morgan Stanley poured salt in the wound today, downgrading Micron Technology from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating. Morgan Stanley also lowered its target for MU, down from $30 to $21.

Even with today’s 3.5% dip, the close near $24 still leaves MU quite a bit above Stanley’s suggested value.

Twitter (TWTR)

Micron Technology wasn’t the only stock to get hit hard by a pessimistic expert opinion on Monday. Twitter — which recently received a somewhat surprising resignation from soon-to-be-former CEO Dick Costolo — was off more than 3% on Monday after TWTR shareholders had time to digest the news.

While any change for a struggling company isn’t inherently bad, it’s still not clear how or when Twitter will be able to pull itself out of its funk. Jack Dorsey will be taking on the CEO role on a temporary basis as of July 1. And because he’s only going to at the helm for a short while (probably), TWTR investors know another significant disruption is just around the corner.

Worse, TWTR investors are being increasingly forced to acknowledge the possibility that it may not matter who the CEO is until the company figures out exactly what it is and what it’s supposed to be doing. Jim Cramer may have summed it up as accurately and as bluntly as is possible when we simply claimed Dorsey and Costolo just “don’t get it at all.”

Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO)

Last but not least, Agios Pharmaceuticals shares were crushed for a second day in a row, though some observers are chalking it up to a mere misunderstanding.

On Friday, Agios Pharmaceuticals reported what seemed like disappointing results data for its phase 1 leukemia drug AG-221. Specifically, the biotech company reported a statistical response rate of 40% to the drug, whereas in a previous update of the study the response rate had been cited as 56%. The news sent AGIO down more than 10% that day.

Shares were down another 5% on Monday after Canaccord Genuity lowered its price target on AGIO this morning, from $103 to $93 per share. Though Canaccord noted the reduced efficacy, the firm’s bigger concern was the apparent delay in updating the market on another drug: AG-120.

Canaccord further fears that the beginning of another trial is a hint that Agios Pharmaceuticals is less than thrilled with the overall results its seeing with its current pipeline.

TheStreet.com’s Adam Feuerstein attempted to explain the drastic decline in the response rate was one purely spurred be a change in the measuring methodology, but traders weren’t buying it.

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

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/06/agios-pharmaceuticals-inc-agio-twitter-inc-twtr-micron-technology-inc-mu-3-todays-worst-stocks/.

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