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A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week.

BRP (STAR)

You may hate the whine of Sea-Doos piercing the quiet at your lakeside retreat, but to BRP shareholders, that’s the sweet sound of money. Helped by sales of personal watercraft, the company formerly known as Bombardier Recreational Products – which also makes snowmobiles, ATVs and three-wheeled motorcycles – posted a 3.5-per-cent increase in first-quarter revenue and lifted its full-year guidance. The stock’s got the throttle open wide.

DOO (TSX), $21.52 up $1.19 or 10.2% over week


VALEANT PHARMACEUTICALS (DOG)

This week in drugs: 1) Tennis star Maria Sharapova slapped with a two-year ban for meldonium use; 2) Deadly chemical W-18 – 100 times more potent than Fentanyl – found in B.C. drug lab busts; 3) Shares of struggling Valeant Pharmaceuticals plunge to lowest level since January, 2011, after company’s delayed first-quarter earnings miss estimates and Valeant slashes earnings guidance – again.

VRX (TSX), $30.80 down $6.62 or 17.7% over week


DAVE AND BUSTER'S ENTERTAINMENT (STAR)

Fried food? Check. Overpriced arcade games? Check. Lots of loud, drunk people? Check. It may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but Dave & Buster’s – often described as an adult version of Chuck E. Cheese – keeps packing them in. The shares rallied after the restaurant chain hiked its full-year outlook after beating first-quarter estimates. Forget playing skee-ball; owning D&B’s stock is way more exciting.

PLAY (Nasdaq), $46.76 up $6.17 or 15.2% over week


DRYSHIPS (DOG)

Get the lifeboats – DryShips just hit an iceberg. Hammered by depressed shipping rates for iron ore, coal, grain and other commodities, the Athens-based ocean freight carrier disclosed in an SEC filing that it defaulted on three loans totalling $213.7-million (U.S.) and expressed “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” After the stock’s collapse this week, investors are deeply underwater.

DRYS (Nasdaq), $1.16 down 97¢ or 45.5% over week


BAYTEX ENERGY (STAR)

Sold your Baytex shares back in January when oil was trading for less than $30 (U.S.) a barrel? Don’t worry: you only missed out on a gain of about 300 per cent. With crude oil recently surging to more than $50 – propelled by Alberta’s wildfires, sabotage in Nigeria and strong demand in China – Baytex has restarted most of the heavy-oil wells it shut last year now that it can actually make money producing the stuff.

BTE (TSX), $7.71 up $1.18 or 18.1% over week