Why Yelp Inc (YELP), Fossil Group Inc (FOSL) and Priceline Group Inc (PCLN) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Once again, the market may have managed to touch record-high territory, but the effort was alarmingly feeble. When all was said and done, the S&P 500’s close of 2,399.63 was only 0.11% better than Tuesday’s last trade.

Why Yelp Inc (YELP), Fossil Group Inc (FOSL) and Priceline Group Inc (PCLN) Are 3 of Today's Worst StocksThe sideways action for stocks as a whole didn’t save every stock from setbacks either. Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN), Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) and Fossil Group Inc (NASDAQ:FOSL) all got up-ended following miserable first quarter reports. Here’s what traders need to know.

Yelp Inc (YELP)

The 18.4% plunge Yelp shares dished out on Wednesday is a sobering reminder that investors can take nothing for granted.

For the quarter ending in March, online review venue Yelp reported a loss of 6 cents per share on revenue of $197.3 million. Problem: Analysts were looking for a top line of $198.1 million.

Worse, though earnings were better than the expected loss of 8 cents per share and revenue was up 24%, YELP shareholders couldn’t get past the fact that the company was forced to dial back its full-year guidance. For all of 2017, Yelp is now anticipating revenue between a range of $850 million and $865 million. That’s more than a little less than the $888.7 million the pros had been calling for.

Blame Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) for at least part of the retracted outlook. In the search engine giant’s most recent conference call it mentioned that its local shopping search traffic was up 45% on a year-over-year basis.

Fossil Group Inc (FOSL)

Like Yelp, shares of watch (and accessory) maker Fossil Group fell hard today in the wake of a tough quarter. And, like Yelp, it wasn’t entirely Fossil’s fault. A much bigger player muscled into its territory, and changed the complexion of the business.

That bigger player in this case was Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Its popular smartwatch was part of an Apple division that saw 31% year-over-year growth last quarter, with many would-be Fossil watch buyers opting for the digital utility of Apple’s device.

The end result: Fossil’s first-quarter results and second-quarter outlook were disastrous. For the quarter ending in March, the company missed estimates for a loss of 27 cents per share by booking a loss of $1.00 per share of FOSL. Revenue of $581.8 million also came up short of the expected $591 million. Worse, Fossil believes revenue will fall between 8% and 11.5% for the second quarter, translating into a loss of between 83 cents and $1.00 per share.

FOSL closed 20.4% lower on Wednesday.

Priceline Group Inc (PCLN)

Last but not least, shares of online travel agent Priceline fell 4.5% today following an earnings beat that was overshadowed by disappointing guidance.

For its first quarter of the year, Priceline Group earned an operating profit of $9.88 per share on sales of $2.42 billion. The bottom line handily topped estimates for a profit of $8.83 per share of PCLN, but the top line was just a hair shy of the $2.43 billion analysts were looking for.

The bulk of the setback PCLN suffered today, however, stemmed from the company’s outlook for the quarter currently underway. Priceline is now expecting to report a profit of between $13.3 and $14 per share, which is considerably less than the average of $15.1 per share of PCLN analysts had been modeling.

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


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/05/why-yelp-inc-yelp-fossil-group-inc-fosl-and-priceline-group-inc-pcln-are-3-of-todays-worst-stocks/.

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