A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week.
SEAWORLD ENTERTAINMENT (DOG)
Business quiz! SeaWorld shares plunged after:
a) A California sea lion rampaged through the crowd, knocking a spectator unconscious with its flipper;
b) In a controversial move, the company opened its parks to recreational fishing;
c) SeaWorld posted lower second-quarter revenue and slashed its full-year earnings outlook, citing weaker attendance from Latin America at its Florida theme parks.
Answer: c.
SEAS (NYSE), $13.21 (U.S.), down $2.19 or 14.2% over week
SAPUTO (STAR)
Stop me if I Havarti told you this, but Saputo posted some really Gouda first-quarter results. Lifted by higher sales volumes in Canada and the United States, the dairy producer reported a 2.3-per-cent increase in revenue and a 29-per-cent jump in adjusted net earnings for the quarter ended June 30, prompting the company to hike its dividend by 11 per cent. Curd shareholders ask for anything more?
SAP (TSX), $41.37, up $2.14 or 5.5% over week
TRIPADVISOR (DOG)
Bad: Finding bed bugs in your hotel room.
Worse: Owning shares of hotel review website TripAdvisor.
Hit by a 7.9-per-cent drop in hotel-booking revenue, the company – which also operates Jetsetter.com, Bookingbuddy.com, TheFork.com and other sites – reported sales and earnings for the second quarter well below analyst expectations. With more travellers turning to Airbnb, investors are checking out of hotel-related stocks.
TRIP (Nasdaq), $60.81 (U.S.), down $9.16 or 13.1% over week
KATE SPADE (DOG)
Kate Spade investors sure have dug themselves into a hole. Hit by discounting at its outlet stores and slower tourist traffic because of the strong U.S. dollar, the maker of handbags and accessories reported same-store sales growth of just 4 per cent in the second quarter – one-third of what analysts had expected. With the company cutting its full-year guidance, the stock got crushed. Just calling a spade a spade.
KATE (NYSE), $17.55 (U.S.), down $4.14 or 19.1% over week
MANULIFE FINANCIAL (DOG)
Things that never seem to go anywhere:
1) Traffic in Toronto;
2) U.S. gun-control proposals;
3) Manulife’s stock price.
Hammered by low interest rates and volatile markets, shares of the long-struggling insurer and wealth manager have dropped about 17 per cent in the past year. Second-quarter results added to investors’ pain as adjusted earnings dropped and trailed analyst estimates – sucking the life out of the shares once again.
MFC (TSX), $17.21, down 59¢ or 3.3% over week