Between a disappointing ISM outlook and yet-another plunge in oil prices, investors saws no reason to prop the market up on Monday. The S&P 500 closed at 2,098.04, down 0.28%.
It could have been worse, though. You could have owned Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN), Michael Kors Holdings Ltd (NYSE:KORS) or Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR), which led the bearish charge today. Here’s a look at Monday’s worst stocks.
Tyson Foods (TSN)
The market likely knew Tyson Foods was apt to come up short of estimates for the second quarter of 2015. But there’s just something about having the worst fears confirmed with actual numbers. TSN plunged 10% on Monday when traders felt blind-sided by the food company’s figures.
For the second quarter, Tyson Foods earned 83 cents per share on $10.1 billion in sales. Analysts, however, were expecting a profit of 93 cents per share of TSN on $10.3 billion in revenue.
During the quarter, Tyson Foods was trapped between rising costs for its beef operation and weak chicken prices. Margins on its all-important chicken business are expected to keep falling into and through 2016. And the beef outlook isn’t any rosier.
Michael Kors Holdings (KORS)
Struggling fashion name Michael Kors Holdings hasn’t reported its prior quarter’s results yet; the news will be posted on Thursday. Analysts aren’t optimistic about the news KORS shareholders are apt to hear, however.
Piper Jaffery analysts Erinn Murphy and Christof Fischer noted:
“Our checks suggest inventory for Michael Kors is building at retailers like Macy’s (M) & Dillard’s (DDS). Watches remain under pressure in the U.S. and are starting to slow in Europe. Having updated our web analytic work, average search activity for KORS in the June quarter was down 14.5% sequentially and down 2.2% Y/Y….With what we believe will be a period of sustained negative comps, we are reducing our estimates. Our FY17 EPS of $3.50 compares to the Street’s $4.55. For Q1, we are lowering our EPS estimate from $0.75 to $0.72.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Morry Brown noted that “higher discounting and clearance inventory at retail locations” was also observed frequently last quarter for Michael Kors handbags and accessories, prompting him to lower his price target for KORS from $48 to $45.
It was all enough to send KORS stock 8% lower on Monday.
Twitter (TWTR)
Having had four days (and one weekend) to stew on it, Twitter shareholders decided they weren’t done punishing the company’s lackluster second quarter results just yet. TWTR shares were down more than 5% on Monday, with the chatter of tepid user growth still echoing.
As a reminder, the microblogging company’s active user base reached 316 million last quarter, up a mere 15% from the year-ago tally, and only 3% stronger than the headcount Twitter boasted in the first quarter of this year. It was the weakest growth TWTR shareholders have seen yet.
While much of the rhetoric in the aftermath of last quarter’s earnings news was focused on how the company could turn things around, there is an increasing amount of discussion suggesting the company as we know it can’t be salvaged.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
