Why Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM), Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) and ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Still trying to find its bearings, by mid-day the market managed to briefly pull itself out of the hole it fell into this morning. But, when all was said and done, the S&P 500 still closed down 0.1% on Tuesday, at 2,109.60. A lack of news left traders little to go on, bullish or bearish.

stock-market-today-185Some stocks, however, would have loved a merely tepid day. Take Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL), ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE:CAG) and Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE:IRM) for instance. All three were notably poor performers.

Here’s what happened.

Delta Air Lines (DAL)

Rule No. 1 in the business: If you’re losing money on what you’re selling, don’t get a bigger truck.

It’s a premise that some airlines — including Delta Air Lines — don’t seem to have learned very well. Still hearing the encouraging echoes of its plans to expand capacity this year, DAL owners had the rug pulled out from underneath them today when the airline notified them its per-seat revenue would fall between 4% and 5% in the current quarter.

While falling fares and more seats don’t inherently mean Delta Air Lines is poised to book a loss for its second quarter of 2015, crimped margins do call into the question the logic of the decision to add capacity that’s not called for.

DAL fell more than 2% on the news.

ConAgra Foods (CAG)

ConAgra Foods investors have been ignoring one particular headwind for some time. But once TheStreet.com contributor Chris Versace just came out and put the premise in print on Tuesday, CAG shareholders couldn’t bury their head in the sand any longer, and sent the stock down 2%.

That premise? The rise in egg prices stemming from a recent wave of bird-flu outbreaks could eventually cause measurable fiscal problems for ConAgra Foods. Specifically, more expensive eggs could eventually some food prices out of reach for too many consumers.

Versace, who manages the “Growth & Dividend Report” portfolio, commented:

“After having owned ConAgra shares as a way to play wage stagnation that would prompt consumers to eat at home, we exited the shares recently because of the uncertainty of the effect the mounting egg crisis would have on the company’s Egg Beater and other egg-related businesses.”

Iron Mountain (IRM)

Last but not least, data storage name Iron Mountain saws its stock fall nearly 6% on Tuesday following a key downgrade. Jefferies lowered its rating on IRM from a “hold” to an “underperform.”

Jefferies analyst Dan Dolev noted:

“IRM was once a beacon of stability, but steepening declines in paper usage and ever cheaper cloud storage…should result in a further deterioration in IRM’s already battered North America storage rental organic growth… [Also,] acquiring Recall won’t resolve IRM’s chronic cash shortfall, so that it would have to raise equity/debt to avoid cutting the dividend.”

Jefferies also dropped its target price on the stock, from $33 to $29. IRM closed at $34.66 today.

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/iron-mountain-delta-conagra/.

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