There were plenty of winners and losers this week, with the world’s leading video streaming service raising its subscription rates and a once ballyhooed enterprise storage speedster coming up short in its Wall Street debut.
McDonald’s (MCD) — Winner
It’s fine to sleep in and still grab a breakfast burrito or an Egg McMuffin now. After weeks of hype, McDonald’s finally rolled out its all-day breakfast offering nationwide Tuesday. There was some initial bellyaching on concerns that not every item made the cut. There are no McGriddles served beyond the breakfast run. There’s a regional split between places that offer English muffin sandwiches and biscuit sandwiches. It was also reported that 10 percent of the restaurants won’t be offering hash browns.
Those are petty concerns. McDonald’s is giving consumers what they want, and it should be incremental. The stock hit a new 52-week high on the week, so clearly Wall Street sees brighter days for Mickey D’s.
Etsy (ETSY) — Loser
Shares of Etsy took a hit after Amazon.com (AMZN) officially rolled out a rival platform for arts and crafts. Handmade at Amazon isn’t a surprise. It’s been recruiting Etsy sellers for months. However, now that Handmade at Amazon is live, the market sees it as a real threat to the Etsy marketplace for crafty artisans.
Netflix (NFLX) — Winner
In a surprising move, Netflix is boosting the subscription price of its standard streaming plan to $9.99 a month. Members will groan, but they’ll accept it. Nobody flinched when Netflix rose to $8.99 from $7.99 on its monthly subscriptions for new members last year. Netflix has seen its membership base grow by more than 15 million subscribers since last year’s hike.
It’s still a compelling value. Netflix has proven that it continues to invest in content, and until a rate hike results in a hit to its subscriber base, you can’t blame Netflix for testing its elasticity.
Pure Storage (PSTG) — Loser
Remember when IPOs used to soar the moment they hit the market? Investors are getting a bit jaded these days. Pure Storage had plenty of buzz leading up to this week’s Wall Street debut. The seller of flash storage enterprise solutions was hoping to go public at a price as high as $18. It had to settle for $17, and that was still too high.
The stock closed at $16.01 on its first day of trading Wednesday. Pure Storage ticked slightly lower Thursday, too. The company is now worth less than it was during its last round of financing. It’s not every day that retail investors can get in for less than venture capitalists, but it won’t be much of an opportunity if this already-broken IPO doesn’t recover.
Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) — Winner
The only game in town when it comes to satellite radio is keeping the NFL around. Sirius XM and the pro football league announced a six-year extension to keep broadcasting games on the satellite radio platform.
Terms of the deal haven’t been announced, but it’s easy to see where Sirius XM has all of the leverage. Regulators let Sirius and XM merge in 2008, and that means that the country’s only two satellite radio providers don’t have to bid against each other when it comes to securing content. It’s a touchdown for Sirius XM, but it probably could have just walked right into the end zone.
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