Plenty of stocks go up and down in any given week. The gainers inspire us to keep investing. The decliners keep greed in check while reminding us about the risks of the equity markets.
Let’s go over some of last week’s best and worst performers.
Carbo Ceramics (CRR) — Up 39 percent last week
The biggest gainer on the New York Stock Exchange last week was Carbo Ceramics. This isn’t a good time to be an oilfield services provider, and Carbo saw its quarterly revenue shaved in half since the same period a year earlier. It also posted a loss, its first quarterly deficit in more than two decades.
With fuel prices so low, we’re finding oil exploration and production companies scale back, and that naturally hurts Carbo. The good news here is that Wall Street pros were forecasting a much larger loss. The bad news is that even after last week’s market-leading surge, the stock is trading 72 percent below last year’s highs.
Ellie Mae (ELLI) — Up 16 percent last week
Another big mover on earnings news was Ellie Mae. The provider of cloud-based software solutions for the residential mortgage industry had a blowout quarter, with revenue soaring 68 percent and profitability growing even faster.
There have always been concerns about how Ellie Mae will hold up when interest rates move up, cooling off the refinancing and new mortgage markets. However, Ellie Mae’s guidance also had an encouraging tone.
Rent-A-Center (RCII) — Up 14 percent last week
Widening its offerings has resulted in broader appeal for Rent-A-Center. The chain that specializes in furniture and appliance rentals saw its stock move higher after posting better than expected quarterly results.
Comparable sales moved higher, fueled partly by its move to offering smartphone rentals. Its Acceptance Now chain is also helping pick up the slack as Rent-A-Center closes down some of its namesake stores. Its quarterly profit of $0.52 a share may have been roughly in line with what it rang up a year earlier, but analysts were settling for $0.49 a share.
Celladon (CLDN) — Down 81 percent last week
Last week’s biggest loser was Celladon, and it wasn’t even close. The fledgling biotech shed more than four-fifths of its value after terrible news on a clinical trial for its top drug candidate. Celladon’s potential treatment for advanced heart failure patients failed to meet the the study’s endpoints.
The market was stunned at the treatment’s ineffectiveness, and at least one analyst — Wedbush — slashed its price target for the shares from $29 all the way down to $3. That’s essentially the liquidation cash value of Celladon.
Constant Contact (CTCT) — Down 30 percent last week
Shares of the mailing list manager shed nearly a third of their value after posting weak revenue growth in its latest quarter. Constant Contact had 645,000 customers as of the end of March — and the average customer is paying more for Constant Contact’s Internet-based platform — but it failed to drum up as many new customers as it was expecting. Constant Contact is now adjusting its top-line outlook for the entire year lower.
Etsy (ETSY) — Down 15 percent last week
One of last month’s hottest IPOs was Etsy. The arts and crafts online marketplace went public at $16, nearly doubling to close at $30 on its first day of trading. There was no material news to drive the shares lower last week, but the stock has likely fallen over the past four trading days on valuation concerns following its initial pop.
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