It wasn’t necessarily a clean or easy victory, but when push came to shove, by the end of the day the bulls came out on top. Still, most investors are watching from the sidelines, knowing Friday morning’s jobs report could send stocks moving more than they’ve moved so far during this rather stagnant week.
It’s not as if every stock posted a tepid advance, however. AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) and Embraer SA (ADR) (NYSE:ERJ) were all deep in the red for Thursday.
Here’s what happened.
AbbVie (ABBV)
Most of the time, investors cheer when a company they own makes a compelling acquisition. Not so with AbbVie today, however. Shares of ABBV fell on news that it was shelling out $21 billion worth of cash and ABBV shares to acquire Pharmacyclics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCYC).
Although Pharmacyclics only generated $729 million in revenue last year, its top line is growing fast thanks to accelerating sales of its blood cancer drug Imbruvica. Some believe Imbruvica could generate nearly $6 billion in annual revenue within the foreseeable future. AbbVie investors, however, weren’t impressed by its potential, sending ABBV to a loss of nearly 6% for the session.
Meanwhile, PCYC ended the day with a gain of more than 10%.
Greif (GEF)
Packaging and container company Greif disappointed shareholders with its fiscal Q1 results, to say the least. The company posted an operating profit of 30 cents per share of GEF stock on $902.3 million in revenue, but analysts were collectively expecting a bottom line of 37 cents per share and sales of $973.8 million. Despite the shortcoming, Greif still expects the full year to be a fruitful one. The company reaffirmed its profit guidance of $2.25 to $2.35 per share of GEF for 2015.
Unfazed by the semi-encouraging full-year outlook, traders sent GEF more than 13% lower on Thursday, to a close of $37.78.
Embraer SA (ERJ)
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer SA was grounded today following poor Q4 results and an equally alarming revision to its 2015 outlook.
All told, Embraer generated revenue of $2.05 billion last quarter, missing estimates of $2.14 billion, and falling 10.9% short of its year-ago top line. Net income of $81 million was 60% weaker than the year-ago bottom line, and well shy of the $163 million profit analysts had been calling for.
Though Embraer raised its revenue guidance for the current year to a range of $6.1 billion to $6.6 billion, it also believes margins are going to contract. The company expects EBIT to roll in somewhere between 8% and 8.5% of revenue this year, down from last year’s 8.6%. Throw in the fact that Embraer SA has thus far been unable to collect payments due from its home-country’s government, and it’s no wonder ERJ finished the day down more than 4%.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
