The market may have overcome a bearish start to the week by fighting its way back into the black by mid-day Monday, but by the time the closing bell rang, stocks were just barely above break-even. The S&P 500 closed at 2057.09, up a modest 0.26% for the session.
Some companies would have loved to see their stocks dish out a mere 0.26% today, though. Shares of Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD), Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) and Mattel, Inc. (NYSE:MAT) spent the entire day backpedaling, closing deep in the red.
Mattel (MAT)
After five consecutive quarters of declining year-over-year sales, Mattel has ousted CEO Bryan Stockton.
The quarterly numbers have more than verified that the maker of Barbie and Fisher Price toys has been struggling, so much so that in December, the company overhauled what most called its “conference room culture” in an effort to put the focus back on making toys fun and taking the focus off of the business of managing a corporation.
But the move was too little, too late, for Stockton. This morning’s preliminary Q4 results indicated the company’s profits were more than cut in half compared to the year-ago bottom line, and sales of $1.99 billion were shy of analyst estimates.
Shareholders, dually spooked by disappointing fourth quarter results and the disruption caused by the exit of any CEO, sent MAT stock down 5% on the news.
Brookdale Senior Living (BKD)
Senior-housing outfit Brookdale Senior Living didn’t do as well in the fourth quarter as most onlookers were expecting, though management deflected mot of the blame by explaining weak occupancy rates at recently-acquired Emeritus Corporation properties.
The Q4 earnings preview unveiled this morning indicated the company was on pace to earn 53 cents per share of BKD stock, which was well below the average analyst estimate of 64 cents. BKD stock fell nearly 8% following the announcement.
Still, CEO Andy Smith remained upbeat, saying:
“Brookdale’s preliminary fourth quarter CFFO was impacted by a combination of lower than expected occupancy and approximately $11 million, or $0.06 per share, of certain higher-than-anticipated insurance reserve adjustments. We are pleased, however, that the timing of our integration of Emeritus is proceeding more quickly than planned. We anticipate the business will be on a common systems and infrastructure platform by mid-2015.”
Seagate Technology PLC (STX)
The good news: Seagate Technology posted fantastic results for its second quarter. Revenue grew 5%, reaching $3.696 billion, while earnings per share of STX stock were up 2% on a year-over-year basis, rolling in at $1.35.
The bad news: That good news was more than trumped by a troubling Q3 outlook and missed Q2 estimates. During a conference call hosted this morning, it was noted the company expected revenue of “at least” $3.45 billion for the current quarter. Analysts had been expecting a figure close to $3.6 billion.
STX stock plummeted on the news, closing down more than 7% for the session.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
