Why Best Buy Co Inc (BBY), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Feeling euphoric following Tuesday evening’s encouraging speech from President Donald Trump, the bulls got back on their horses on Wednesday following Tuesday’s market lull. By the time the closing bell rang, the S&P 500 was up 1.37% to finish the day at 2,395.96. The close was a record high close, and the day’s intraday high was also a record peak from the index.

Why Best Buy Co Inc (BBY), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW) Are 3 of Today's Worst StocksNot every name jumped on the bullish bandwagon, however. Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) and Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) all delivered disappointing quarterly reports and similarly disappointing outlooks, pulling the rug out from underneath each stock.

Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW)

Cybersecurity outfit Palo Alto Networks just missed the mark this last quarter’s numbers. But, with the stock being priced not just for greater growth but also priced for perfection, PANW owners had little choice but to send the stock down a whopping 24.1% in response to the lackluster report.

In its second fiscal quarter of the year, ending in January, Palo Alto Networks posted a profit of 63 cents per share versus analyst estimates of 62 cents per share of PANW. Revenue, however, of $422.6 million came up short of the estimated $429.5 million. The company doesn’t think its fiscal third-quarter revenue will meet current analyst expectations either.

Some analysts are taking notice of the shortcoming too. Baird downgraded PANW to “Neutral,” with analyst Jayson Noland pinpointing one of the companies greatest headwinds:

“We believe Cisco has become a meaningfully stronger competitor per channel feedback. We feel more comfortable moving to the sidelines at this point as the company works through a sales coverage reorg.”

Best Buy Co Inc (BBY)

The ongoing turnaround effort from electronics retailer Best Buy may be impressive in a broad sense, but the company dropped the ball last quarter.

For the quarter ending in January — which includes the all-important holiday shopping season — the company earned an operating profit of $1.95 per share on sales of $13.48 billion. The bottom line handily topped estimates of $1.67 per share of BBY, but revenue missed expectations of $13.62 billion.

It was the company’s guidance that served as the stumbling block for BBY shares, however. After improving a respectable 0.7% last quarter, Best Buy said it expects same-store sales for the quarter already underway to fall between 1.5% in 2.5%. The retailer isn’t looking for much, if any, revenue growth this year either.

BBY ended the day down 4.5%.

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)

Finally, clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters reported mixed Q4 results on Wednesday morning. Earnings of 39 cents per share were a bit better than the expected 38 cents per share of AEO. But, revenue of $1.1 billion was just a tad short of the $1.11 billion analysts had been calling for.

That half-miss wasn’t the crux of the 9.5% tumble AEO shares took today. That setback is mostly the result of a disappointing same-store sales outlook for the quarter currently underway. The company anticipates sales will be flat at best, or possibly even down at the low single-digit pace. That should translate into per-share earnings of between 15 and 17 cents. Experts were looking for 0.8% growth, on average, and a profit of 21 cents per share.

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/2017/03/why-best-buy-co-inc-bby-american-eagle-outfitters-aeo-and-palo-alto-networks-inc-panw-are-3-of-todays-worst-stocks/.

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