Why General Electric Company (GE), Mattel, Inc. (MAT) and Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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GE - Why General Electric Company (GE), Mattel, Inc. (MAT) and Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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The market was on the precipice of sending a bullish message by way of a strong technical thrust that would leave key ceilings in the rear-view mirror. Alas, buying effort once again faded before any true progress could be made. Not even President Donald Trump’s promise of a massive tax overhaul soon was enough to wake stocks up. The S&P 500 ended the day at 2348.69, down 0.3%.

General Electric Company (GE), Mattel, Inc. (MAT) and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. Are Among Friday's Worst StocksThat was a drop in the bucket compared to the baths Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) and Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX) took on Friday, however. These three ranked among the worst of the worst, mostly in the wake of earnings news.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX)

The headlines for Freeport-McMoRan today were bullish in and of themselves. In the much bigger picture, though, they were less than what FCX shareholders were hoping for.

On Friday, Indonesia’s mining regulatory body said it would allow Freeport-McMoRan to export up to 1.11 million tonnes of copper concentrate mined at the hotly debated Grasberg site.

The Grasberg mine is a hot button simply because it’s the world’s second-biggest known cache of copper. The Indonesian government was more than happy to let Freeport-McMoRan develop the project, but now that production is in high gear, the nation’s regulators want to impose higher tax and royalty rates on the company’s exports.

Friday’s allowance is a step in the right direction, but in that it ends in February 2018, it’s anything but the decisive resolution FCX owners wanted to see materialize.

FCX ended the day down 2.3%.

General Electric Company (GE)

In the grand scheme of things, the 2.3% pullback that General Electric shares suffered today isn’t devastating. But in terms of the total amount of market cap lost and the number of GE shareholders that were adversely impacted, GE stock has earned a spot on the daily “worst three” list.

Last quarter’s earnings report was the prod for the pullback. Though they weren’t bad, the unrevised outlook accompanying the Q1 post along with a negative cash flow figure spooked GE owners.

For the quarter ending in March, General Electric earned 21 cents per share on revenue of $27.66 billion. Analysts were only calling for a profit of 17 cents and $26.26 billion. Still, the top line was down on a year-over-year basis, and per-share profits were flat.

Worse, cash flow turned even more negative than anticipated. GE was expecting to report a negative cash flow of $1 billion, but reported a negative cash flow of $1.6 billion for the accounting period in question.

Mattel, Inc. (MAT)

Last but not least, toymaker Mattel — the name behind Barbie, Hot Wheels and Monster High — reported alarmingly weak first-quarter numbers after yesterday’s closing bell rang. The company, already expected to lose 17 cents per share, ended up losing 32 cents per share of MAT. Revenue of $736 million also came up short of estimates of $801 million.

Mattel has been working on a turnaround effort, complete with a new CEO. At the helm is former Google executive Margo Georgiadis, charged with rekindling slumping sales.

No dice so far though. Merchandise that wasn’t sold during the all-important fourth quarter of last year got in the way of the Q1 2017’s shipments.

MAT ended the session off 13.6%.

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/2017/04/general-electric-company-ge-mattel-inc-mat-and-freeport-mcmoran-inc-fcx-are-3-of-todays-worst-stocks/.

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