A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week.
PRECISION CASTPARTS - STAR
After some initial alarm that Warren Buffett had developed a rather expensive angel dust habit, it was learned that it was PCP the company, not the dissociative drug, he was high on. To be fair, the Oracle of Omaha does sound like the name of a shadowy drug kingpin. And Precision Castparts sounds like a perfect front, its “components” moulded to look like airplane parts, but stuffed inside are vast quantities of narcotics fuelling the North American drug trade. In that case, $32.3-billion would be a steal.
PCP (NYSE), $230.50 (U.S.) up $36.62 or 18.9% over week
GOOGLE - STAR
Using words such as “accountability” and “aspiration,” Google revealed its new corporate structure placing all units outside its main Web business under a holding company called Alphabet. In addition to the name representing a “collection of letters that represent language,” as Google co-founder Larry Page pointed out, it’s also a compound of alpha, or the return above benchmark, and bet. The New York Times then promptly pointed out that the trademarked name and domain alphabet.com already belong to BMW. Shareholders registered their confusion with it all by pushing up Google’s stock.
GOOGL (Nasdaq), $689.37 (U.S.) up $24.98 or 3.8% over week
AQUINOX PHARMACEUTICALS - STAR
Two things that might help alleviate bladder pain:
1) AQX-1125, a drug being developed by Vancouver-based Aquinox showing promising trial results;
2) Owning a stock that rises by 3,000 per cent in a little more than a single trading day.
On Monday morning, Aquinox traded as high as $55.75, having closed at $1.79 two days prior. By the end of the week, the stock had given back more than half of those gains, but still more than doubled on the week.
AQXP (Nasdaq), $22.13 (U.S.) up $11.71 or 112% over week
PENN WEST PETROLEUM - DOG
Two things that definitely will not help with bladder pain:
1) Drinking crude oil;
2) Owning Penn West shares.
This week, the company’s losses were macro driven, as restored Iranian output exacerbated an oversupplied global oil market, while China’s currency depreciation weighed further on crude. Penn West’s considerable weaknesses make it extra sensitive to falling oil prices, as the stock flirted this week with the $1 mark, ending the week as one of the worst performers on the S&P/TSX composite index, having lost almost one-quarter of its dwindling value.
PWT (TSX), $1.17 down 34¢ or 22.5% over week
BOMBARDIER - DOG
Good news for Bombardier investors: If you bought the stock prior to June, 1991, or in the month of April, 1993, you’re probably up, marginally, on a nominal basis. The rest of you are out of luck, with the stock trading at a 22-year low. This week, Fitch downgraded Bombardier’s debt, while an aviation consulting firm called the company’s customer base for its flagship C Series aircraft of “iffy quality.”
BBD.B (TSX), $1.35 down 17¢ or 11.2% over week