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.
Fitbit (FIT) — Up 22 percent last week
Investors that strapped on Fitbit’s freshly minted stock during last month’s IPO are the picture of health these days. Fitbit came up big on the week after some flattering analyst remarks about the pioneer of wearable fitness trackers.
The week kicked off with RBC Capital Markets initiating coverage with a bullish perspective, eyeing a whopping 83 percent in revenue growth this year. CNBC’s Jim Cramer then had some kind words to say about Fitbit. Both feel that Fitbit will capably survive the arrival of the Apple Watch, arguing that there isn’t as much overlap as you might think between the buyers of smartwatches and fitness bracelets.
Bassett Furniture (BSET) — Up 21 percent last week
A better-than-expected quarterly report sent shares of Bassett higher. The furniture-maker and retailer with 92 stores pitching midpriced merchandise came through with a profit of 39 cents a share. Analysts were settling for net income of just 30 cents a share.
Consolidated sales soared 31 percent for the quarter since the prior year’s period. An acquisition helped juice up those results, but even if you back out the purchase, you find a still robust 17 percent uptick in organic sales.
Chemours (CC) — Up 10 percent last week
Sometimes a spinoff can unlock value in a corporate subsidiary. Chemours took off after being spun off by DuPont (DD). DuPont shareholders received one share of the freshly public performance chemicals subsidiary for every five shares owned of DuPoint. Chemours is a leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, and the market seemed to like the value in the stand-alone subsidiary in bidding it higher — and parent company DuPont lower.
Ambac Financial (AMBC) — Down 24 percent last week
Greece isn’t the only country with a volatile debt situation. Puerto Rico is also on the ropes, and bond insurers with exposure to the island nation took a hit on the potential shortfall. Ambac joined the bond insurers taking a hit on the potential default, though Ambac made back some of its losses on Friday when it was reported that Puerto Rico did make its July bond payments.
Ballard Power (BLDP) — Down 22 percent last week
Ballard kicked off the week by announcing the acquisition of Protonex in a $30 million deal, but the real dagger was the surprisingly weak pricing of a secondary offering. The struggling fuel cell specialist sold a little more than 8.1 million shares in the offering at a price of $1.60 apiece. That’s not very encouraging when your stock began the week perched well above a price of two bucks.
Freshpet (FRPT) — Down 20 percent last week
It’s been two months since Freshpet came under fire after reports on social media surfaced of Freshpet premium dog food containing mold. The negative attention resurfaced. There’s no proof that this is a problem outside of the isolated cases, and there has never been a recall. However, it’s never good for a brand that prides itself on high-end refrigerated dog and cat food to be seen as potentially dangerous.
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