Spooked by disappointing quarterly numbers from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), and with plenty of recent short-term profits to take, stocks started the day pretty deep in the red. The bulls never stopped swinging, but couldn’t undo the opening salvo of selling. The S&P 500 ended the day down 0.47%, at 1917.83.
Leading the charge from the bears were Perrigo Company plc (NYSE:PRGO), DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH), and Vale SA (NYSE:VALE). Here’s the deal.
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO)
For the first time in a long time, Perrigo Company missed quarterly estimates, at least in part due to a rocky start with its acquisition of Omega Pharma. In the fourth fiscal quarter of last year, drugmaker Perrigo Company earned $1.80 per share on revenue of $1.43 billion. Analysts, however, were calling for a bottom line of $1.93 per share and sales of $1.46 billion.
The soft patch for the quarter was the aforementioned acquisition of Omega Pharm, although the company is still optimistic the deal can pay off. CEO Joseph Papa said of the Branded Consumer Healthcare umbrella under which Omega operates, “Although the segment did not meet our internal expectations, we are taking specific actions to address this performance.”
PRGO shares still ended the day down 10%, with the bearish flames fanned by the company’s contracted full-year earnings guidance. Perrigo now anticipates reporting a profit between $9.50-$9.80 per share in 2016, versus prior guidance of $9.50-$10.10 per share of PRGO.
Vale SA (VALE)
Perrigo Company wasn’t the only name to get hit hard by a disappointing numbers on Thursday. Brazilian steel company Vale SA also dipped deep into the red ink to the tune of 5.7% following news that its iron ore output for the fourth quarter was lower than analysts had anticipated.
Last quarter, Vale produced 85.4 million tons of iron ore, missing estimates for output of 88.3 million. The company produced 88.2 million tons of iron ore in the same quarter a year earlier. The slowdown in production largely stems from a dam break near one of its mines in Brazil in early November.
Stability is expected this year, though Vale didn’t alter its December guidance suggesting production of 340 million-350 million tons of iron ore in 2016.
DISH Network Corp (DISH)
Finally, DISH Network shares lost more than 6% of their value today after the company fell short of Q4 estimates, and underscored the bad news by reporting a loss in the number of subscribers.
The satellite television service provider earned $1.61 per share on revenue of $3.78 billion. The pros, however, were calling for a bottom line of $1.97 per share of DISH, though the actual top line was better than the estimated $3.74 billion.
The mixed numbers reflect a transition in the company’s primary product(s). See, DISH Network isn’t immune to the cord-cutting phenomenon. It lost 121,000 subscribers to its higher margin satellite TV service, though it managed to add 109,000 subscribers to its lower-margin (but quite marketable) Sling TV service.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
