With a night to sleep on it, traders decided they didn’t care for the potential fallout of the first rate hike in several years. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% to a close of 2041.89, wiping out all of Wednesday’s gains…and then some.
For owners of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII) and TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU), the bad day for the market was made even worse by the particularly bearish performance of each of these names. Here’s the deal.
TELUS Corporation (TU)
It’s not too often you’ll find a Canadian telco name like TELUS topping a “worst of” list for any given day. In fact, this is the first time TU has ever appeared in the this column. Had peer and rival Rogers Communications Inc. (NYSE:RCI) not made a similarly bearish move, TELUS may not even be worth a look, either. When two birds of a feather are getting hit hard, though, there’s usually something to it that’s worth exploring.
In this case, the proverbial “rest of the story” is provided by another peer and rival, Canada’s Shaw Communications Inc. (NYSE:SJR). Shaw reported on Thursday that it would be acquiring mobile phone service provider Wind Mobile.
Fearing that the soon-to-be-merged Shaw and Wind could create a truly competitive threat, TU investors sent their holdings down nearly 8%. RCI wasn’t too far behind with more than a 6% pullback.
Oracle Corporation (ORCL)
Q3’s earnings season isn’t quite over yet, though plenty of Oracle owners are likely wishing it was. ORCL shares lost more than 5% of their value today after the database giant offered up fiscal Q2 numbers that were a bit disappointing.
Second-quarter earnings were satisfactory; the company earned 63 cents per share versus analyst expectations for a bottom line of only 60 cents per share of ORCL stock. But, revenue of $9.0 billion was a little shy of the $9.03 billion analysts were calling for.
Although cloud-driven revenue only totaled $652 million last quarter, the company is still optimistic on that front. And, that enthusiasm may be merited. Cloud revenue was up 30% versus last year’s total, and margins on that cloud business were a healthy 43%.
Polaris Industries Inc. (PII)
Last but not least, what do you get when you combine a shrinking middles class (in a stagnant economy) with unusually warm weather for this time of year? A poor outlook from snowmobile maker Polaris Industries, that’s what. The company warned today that 2015’s top and bottom lines wouldn’t be as strong as previously suggested, as the company has been trapped between a lack of snowfall and tepid consumerism.
Polaris now expects to see revenue of $4.66 billion-$4.7 billion, versus estimates of $4.93 billion, for the current year. That translates into a profit of $6.72-$6.78 per share of PII, versus analyst estimates of $7.30.
PII shares were off nearly 11% on the heels of the news.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
