Why Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, Tripadvisor Inc and Transocean Ltd Are Today’s 3 Worst Stocks

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The stock market wavered on Monday, flirting with breakeven levels as U.S. indices paused near their all-time highs.

diamond offshore drilling inc tripadvisor inc transocean ltd todays 3 worst stockEven though today wasn’t a particularly bearish session, shares of Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO), Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP), and Transocean Ltd (RIG) managed to end as three of the worst performers on Wall Street, Monday.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO)

Offshore oil drillers are getting nailed today, and Diamond Offshore is no exception. It’s unfortunate for shareholders, who are doubtlessly hoping for 2014’s downward trend to reverse itself. DO stock is off 5.7% today and 39% on the year as oil prices plunged and demand for oil rigs fell with it.

DO stock is a subsidiary of Loews (L), whose CEO James Tisch made some awful bullish comments in the face of the decline today. Implying that some of Diamond Offshore’s competitors could end up selling the company rigs at a discount due to financial troubles, Tisch said Diamond Offshore is uniquely positioned to take advantage of such a potential opportunity.

If you buy the story, DO stock just might be a buy at these levels, too.

Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP)

Shares of online travel company Tripadvisor shed 3.9% on Monday as jittery investors ditched TRIP stock before its third-quarter earnings report tomorrow. Although shares are up less than 3% year-to-date, TRIP stock has soared more than 200% in the last five years as online travel booking sites like Priceline (PCLN) and Expedia (EXPE) have also earned investors massive returns.

Analysts are looking for Tripadvisor to log sales of $1.24 billion this year — a 31% increase from 2013. TRIP stock could benefit long-term if its able to capitalize on current efforts to expand and improve its ability to offer personalized travel and hotel recommendations, but considering that TRIP has a P/E of 58 and forward P/E of 30, I think shares are a little frothy at current levels.

Transocean Ltd (RIG)

As I mentioned earlier, today was a bad day to be in the oil business. Contract driller and rig manager Transocean fared similarly to Diamond Offshore, with RIG stock taking a 3.2% hit Monday. While RIG stock is down more than 41% this year, RIG isn’t falling from sheer negative momentum alone.

The price of crude oil plunged today, falling nearly 3% to rest around the $78 per barrel level, a far cry from the $103 per barrel we saw less than five months ago. News that Saudi Arabia was lowering its oil prices for the U.S. in an apparent effort to compete with America’s own shale oil put further pressure on energy prices today.

Until oil prices can mount a sustained comeback, I’d stay far away from RIG stock.

As of this writing John Divine held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter at @divinebizkid.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2014/11/diamond-offshore-drilling-inc-tripadvisor-inc-transocean-ltd-todays-3-worst-stocks/.

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