Why Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ), National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NOV) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Like Friday, the bulls tried to get stocks moving higher today, even without the benefit of any major news. And, like Friday, the effort faded by mid-day, leading the S&P 500 to a loss of 0.27% and a close at 2041.99 on Monday.

Why Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ), National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NOV) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX) Are 3 of Today's Worst StocksHowever, Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ), National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) were hit even harder than the broad market was today, albeit for understandable reasons.

Here’s the deal.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ)

Car-rental outfit Hertz Global Holdings ended the day down a little more than 11%, after Jim Cramer fanned some already-bearish flames.

The company got the ball rolling, warning HTZ investors that its first quarter sales and income wouldn’t be up to previous expectations. Prior guidance for car-rental revenue growth between 1.5% to 2.5% has been scaled back to between no growth and a 1.5% decline. Full-year, per-share profits are now projected to roll in between $0.95 and $1.10, versus analysts estimates for 2016 income of $1.04 per share of HTZ.

Jim Cramer blames the advent of Uber for the headwind Hertz Global now faces, but he also adds that Hertz largely allowed itself to be blindsided by its refusal to acknowledge the risk that Uber has posed, and still poses.

National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NOV)

Despite the respectable 1.7% gain for crude oil prices today, several energy stocks managed to lose more than a little ground. Leading that charge was National-Oilwell Varco, when it finally announced the inevitable — its dividend is being cut, a lot. Going forward, the current quarterly dividend of 46 cents per share of NOV will only be five cents per share.

The lower payout will help shore up a quickly deteriorating liquidity status, improving cash flow by $615 million per year. It may not be enough, however. Its Q1 revenue is expected to roll in 20% below Q1-2015’s total of $2.7 billion. It’s also gearing up for a slow 2016.

It was enough to send NOV to a loss of more than 6% today.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX)

Some favorable comments from Stifel had a chance to prod Valeant Pharmaceuticals shares higher today, but the market couldn’t look past a damning comparable commentary from Rodman & Renshaw regarding VRX, and the mere appearance of impropriety.

Stifel analyst Annabel Samimy described Valeant Pharmaceuticals as a company that was turning the corner, and would now be able to focus on maximizing the value of its portfolio and pipeline. Samimy even opined VRX could be worth as much as $90 to $95 per share now that technical default has been taken off the table.

Rodman & Renshaw analysts didn’t see things quite the same way. Analyst Raghuram Selvaraju explains:

“We believe that a focus on risk-mitigated late-stage pipeline assets, elimination of low-quality businesses, and aggressive debt reduction should return Valeant to stability, though the firm may never regain the heights scaled only last year.”

That, and the fact that the company felt the need to instruct outgoing CEO Michael Pearson to appear for a subpoenaed deposition — raising new questions in the process — to a U.S. Senate investigatory committee, was enough to send VRX shares more than 7% lower on Monday.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/04/why-hertz-global-holdings-inc-htz-national-oilwell-varco-inc-nov-and-valeant-pharmaceuticals-intl-inc-vrx-are-3-of-todays-worst-stocks/.

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