In a 180-degree turnaround from Thursday’s bullish romp, stocks were decidedly bearish on Friday, perhaps prompted by mounting clues that there is no palatable way to get Greece out of its fiscal trouble. When all was said and done, the S&P 500 lost 0.54% today, closing at 2,109.76.
For Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ:FNSR), Vale SA (NYSE:VALE) and Hershey Co. (NYSE:HSY), though, it was even worse, mostly thanks to earnings and outlooks. Here’s a look at Friday’s worst stocks.
Hershey (HSY)
Looks like people are cutting back on candy consumption … especially in China.
The evidence? Confectioner Hershey announced today reeled in its full-year sales outlook this morning. Formerly looking for top-line growth between 6% and 7%, now HSY only anticipates revenue growth of somewhere between 4% and 5%, on a constant-currency basis. The earnings forecast of $4.30 to $4.38 per share of HSY was dialed back to a range of only $4.10 to $4.18. The candy maker specifically noted weak demand in China as a key reason for lowered guidance.
The outlook was dire enough to prompt Hershey to also announce it would be cutting 300 jobs, though it has not yet decided which jobs would be ended.
HSY fell 3.6% on the news.
Vale SA (VALE)
Technically speaking, Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE:SCCO) was bigger loser than Vale SA as on Friday, losing a little more than 3.6% of its value. Vale doled out more widespread pain, however, by virtue of much higher volume behind its 2.5% setback today.
The winner of the race to the bottom between SCCO and VALE isn’t the key take-away for investors, though. The important detail in play here is the fact that industrial metal prices are still getting hammered, and as long as they are, names like Vale and Southern Copper will continue to struggle.
For perspective, copper prices have fallen nearly 12% since peaking in mid-May. Aluminum prices are off almost 14% for about the same timeframe. Even the recent rebound in iron ore prices — Vale SA’s bread and butter — has been recently assessed as nothing more than false hope, pulling the rug out from underneath VALE shares.
Finisar Corporation (FNSR)
Communications hardware maker Finisar Corporation may have met its earnings estimates in its recently completed fiscal Q4. A mere “meet,” however, just wasn’t enough to satisfy FNSR investors.
Last quarter, the company earned 25 cents per share on $320 million in sales, versus analyst expectations for a profit of 25 cents per share and $321 million in revenue.
FNSR shares fell 10% on Friday, though, after the company served up disappointing guidance for the current quarter. Finisar plans on reporting a profit of between 23 and 29 cents per share in the first fiscal quarter of this year, on sales between $308 million and $328 million. Analysts had been looking for, on average, earnings of 27 cents per share of FNSR and $318 million in revenue.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
