Although volume was light, the approaching Thanksgiving holiday didn’t slow the bulls down on Monday, with the NASDAQ Composite reaching a new multi-year high close while the S&P 500 tiptoed (again) all the way into record territory. Gold even got into the act with a modest gain of its own.
Not every stock out there gave its shareholders something to be thankful about, however. Trina Solar Limited (TSL), Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (POT), and Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CBI) were all more than a little deep into the red on Monday, for a variety of reasons.
Trina Solar Limited (TSL)
Trina Solar may have topped estimates in its fiscal third quarter, but sales were disappointing. The solar panel manufacturer earned an operating profit of 34 cents per share of TSL stock, versus estimates of 15 cents and a year-ago profit of 14 cents per share.
The top line grew more than 12% in the third quarter, to $617 million, thanks to strong demand from China and Japan. Still, it was shy of the $646 million in sales analysts were expecting Trina Solar Limited to drive.
The core of the reason TSL stock lost more than 5% of its value was its full-year outlook for total shipments. The company now believes it will only deliver capacity somewhere between 3.61 to 3.66 gigawatts for 2014, versus previous outlooks of 3.6 to 3.8 gigawatts.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)
Canadian fertilizer and feed company Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan saw its shares slump nearly 6% today. The tumble wasn’t spurred by any bad news, per se. Rather, the pullback was the likely result of some position-reversing.
POT stock and its potash peers surged sharply last week in the wake of news that one of its competitors — Uralkali — was forced to suspend mining activities and evacuate workers at one of its mines after water began to flood it. This one particular mine accounts for more than 3% of the total global supply, which in turn meant Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan would be able to drive more sales in the foreseeable future.
As it turns out, though, Russia-based Uralkali is already planning to repair the damage done by the water and could be restarting some mining operations at the site in the future.
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CBI)
Warren Buffett and David Tepper both may own big stakes in it, but that doesn’t make Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. immune to major setbacks. CBI stock fell 5% today on the heels of a downgrade from Goldman Sachs (GS). The investment bank lowered its opinion on the heavy construction stock from “neutral” to “sell.”
The downgrade was accompanied by a lower target price for CBI stock, from $61 to $46 per share. Chicago Bridge & Iron Company ended the day near $54.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
